After
by ShearViscosity
Summary: Sequel to Ever. It's been four months since Alex's sister Alice, went missing without a trace. Determined to find answers, Alex decides to return to Hallow Hill. Once there, she gets more than she ever bargained for. Complete.
1. The Age of Not Believing

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

I'm posting a little early, since I have to go somewhere different tomorrow for work, and I don't know if I'll have enough time in the morning to post a new story. So enjoy the first chapter of After.

**After**

**The Age of Not Believing**

_The six year-old girl watched as her father walked away. He had patted her on the head, telling her to be good, before he left. Soon her older sister joined her._

_"When will we see him again?" she asked of her older sister._

_"I don't know," was her response. Her sister started to cry._

_Wiping her tears away, the older girl comforted the younger. "Don't cry. We'll always have each other. I promise."_

_"You promise?"_

_"Yes. Why don't we both make the promise together? That we'll always be together, and won't ever be separated."_

_"I promise," the sisters said together. And with that the started to play._

* * *

"**Still No Trace of Missing American Four Months Later**"

_Four months after the sudden disappearance of Alice Thompson, 18, police still have no leads. On June 1, 2010, Miss Thompson vanished at a fair in England while with her cousin, Nick Thompson, and friend Candace Bryden._

_It is believed by police that the person behind her disappearance was also responsible for luring Mr. Thompson away from the girls and drugging him. It is also believed that his target originally was Miss Bryden. However growing impatient while she was in the restroom, he grabbed Miss Thompson instead. Despite a massive manhunt and international co-operations between the United States and the United Kingdom, nothing has been found of the missing teen._

_Her parents yesterday, on the four month anniversary of her disappearance, released the following statement: "We will not give up hope that our daughter is still out there somewhere alive. We will continue to look for her no matter what. If anyone knows anything about her disappearance, please come forward. All we want is closure."_

_Miss Thompson was with Mr. Thompson and Miss Bryden celebrating their high school graduation. She had plans in the fall to attend college as a freshman with an undecided major. Anyone with any information is encouraged to contact their local police department as well as the number below. A reward is being offered._

Alex looked at the paper in her lap. Four months and still not one word on her sister. Well, other than the Candace bit. When Candace had first said she saw Alice's ghost, Alex thought she had been making it up to get sympathy. Then she had mentioned the ever after line, something from her and Alice's childhood days when Alice loved to play make believe. It was possible that Alice mentioned it once to Candace, but Alex didn't think she would, given the fact that it was the sort of thing Candace would tease her over. Besides the line, nothing more was ever found of Alice.

She then fingered the book her sister had bought just hours before her disappearance. It contained stories about goblins and elves and other local legends. Alex didn't believe in goblins or elves. Alex believed in science, not magic. She believed that there was a logical explanation for her sister's disappearance and was determined to get to the bottom of it. But it was still one of the last things her sister had touched, so Alex treated it carefully.

Alex had only been allowed a week off from her internship to go to Hollow Hill before having to return. Now that it was over with, she was going back. It took a lot of time to convince her parents to let her take a semester off from college to do the trip. But she needed closure. She needed to know she did everything in her power to find her sister and she wouldn't be satisfied till that point.

One interesting thing she had noticed about her parents was that ever since Alice went missing, they had grown closer. After being divorced for years, they found comfort in each other over their youngest child's disappearance. Alex wasn't sure what she thought of it. It was nice to see her parents together again, but she didn't know if it would last. And worse was the circumstances that brought it about.

To distract herself from those thoughts, she thought of Finn instead. Finn was the friend that Alice had bought the figurine for when she bought her book. He was a huge comic book, fantasy, fan and she thought he might enjoy it. He was also Alex's best friend. Unfortunately, Finn had been unable to join Alex due to his fear of flying.

"I know there's a higher probability of dying in a car accident than a plane crash, but for some reason my brain doesn't process it. Instead it processes the image of my body falling several miles while achieving terminal velocity only to go splat into a million tiny pieces upon reaching the ground. I like my body on the ground in one piece thank you very much. Planes and rockets are pretty to look at design wise, but not to ride in," was the way he had explained it to her.

Alex found it amusing since Finn actually wanted to design rockets and space ships one day. When she pointed it out to him, he had merely noted that he was perfectly capable of design and did not necessarily have to ride in what he built. And no, that was not the same as a cook who did not eat what he made.

However he didn't leave her empty handed. Instead he had sent a special set of thermal imaging glasses he had modified, tweaked her cell phone reception, created a hearing aid that picked up sounds that she wouldn't be able to hear her otherwise, modified her laptop and cell phone so they could be recharged by the sun, and promised to keep in touch with her every twenty-four hours to help her analyze her evidence. In short she was a walking crime lab. As for her contributions to it, she had brought her trusty pocket knife and had bought a high powered taser (slightly modified by Finn of course) and some mace (also modified by Finn). The last three items she had mailed ahead of time, not wanting to waste any time with airport security explaining what she was doing with them.

Alex had no doubt in her mind that she would not fail to find her sister. When she was determined to do something, she did it. She may have not been there to protect Alice when she needed it, but she would make up for it now. And above all, she would make the bastard responsible pay for what he put her family through.

****Author's Note****

Thanks to JayLah, speederina, and SiriusBlackisSeriuslyfunny33 for reviews. Reviews are always nice and are welcomed.

Next chapter is Heffalumps and Woozles. It's one of my favorites because of all the hours I spent researching on Dunkle's website and the books. Basically all the canon characters who have disappeared with the years, along with my own OC's, and a couple liberties taken with last names, among other incidents that have happened over the years.

Ah, Finn. He is probably one of my favorite characters. His character was inspired by Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory, but he's not as extreme as Sheldon. His name was mentioned once in Ever, and if you blink you'll miss it. But you'll be seeing a lot of him in After, especially in the next couple chapters.

As always, read, enjoy, and review!


	2. Heffalumps and Woozles

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

**Heffalumps and Woozles**

Alex didn't waste the rest of the summer doing nothing. Instead, with Finn's help they had done some research on the Hallowed Hill area and made an interesting discovery—every fifty years or so a girl or two would vanish without a trace. This pattern went back hundreds of years. Alice went missing in 2010, Edith Peterson in 1966, Agnes Middleton in 1965, Jessica Dunkle in 1911, Colette Chevalier in 1910, Charlotte Richardson in 1861, Katherine and Emily Winslow in 1815, Annie Graham in 1800, Adele Roberts in 1745, and the list went on and on.

"So?" Alex had asked Finn. "I don't see what's so remarkable. There are probably dozens of other areas with a similar pattern."

"That may be true," Finn answered, "but what are the odds of those dozens of other areas having such a similar M.O. pattern? The girls all went missing in the middle of the night. Some while with large groups of people, or even at the lodge itself. Nobody ever saw a thing, and in some instances slept so soundly they didn't hear anything either. In fact there is one account of a cook having a late dinner, only to fall asleep with his face in the soup."

Alex looked at him unconvinced.

Finn continued. "No trace of the girls was ever found. No clothes, no body. In the cases of Charlotte, Adele, Kate, Emily, and another girl named Belinda who went missing before them, all were related to the masters of the lodge who would no doubt pay a hefty sum to get them back. Except no ransom demand was made in any of the cases."

"So what happened to them then?"

"Local legend explains their disappearance due to goblins and elves. Katherine and Emily even at one point reportedly begged to be sent away because they were convinced the goblin King was after them, while Adele disappeared while looking for goblins."

"Do you believe that goblins and elves are responsible?" asked Alex, putting her elbow on the table, and setting her chin into in.

Finn rolled his eyes at her. "Of course not. Like you I believe that there is a perfectly rational explanation. Perhaps they were taken for secret pagan sacrifices by the locals." Seeing Alex's doubting look he proposed another theory as well. "Or perhaps there is a secret group of nomads in the woods who kidnapped them for brides. They themselves came up with the goblin and elves legends to protect themselves from outsiders."

"And the fact that there has been no evidence found supporting this theory?" Alex pointed out.

"The Reserve is big enough. The lake itself is 3.75 miles long and numerous caves have been found throughout the area as well. There are still areas that remain unexplored by even the Reserve officials themselves. So it is completely plausible for a small group of people to live there undetected," Finn countered.

"And none of the girls tried to run away?" continued Alex, trying to find some flaw in his theory.

"What do you want from me?" Finn asked, exasperated with Alex, "With as little evidence as we have there's not much to go off of. Can you come up with up a more reasonable explanation?"

"Yes. There's no link. Alice was taken by a psychopath. So were the rest of the girls. It happens all the time."

"Your theory ends with her death. Mine proposes that she is still alive. Which one would you rather believe is true?" To this, Alex had no clever response.

Finn, noticing her unease, changed to a different topic that was not as grim. "There's also the Bermuda Triangle theory as well."

"The what?"

"Well, I suppose the England Oval theory is more appropriate. The Reserve has had a history similar to the Bermuda Triangle's."

"Really?" questioned Alex, her voice again dripping with sarcasm.

"Yes, really. Unexplained disappearances is just one similarity. Did you know that not one single bomb was dropped on the area during any of the world wars?"

"Why would they? Germany went after major cities, transportation, and communication lines. Forests weren't that high on their priority list."

"Alright. But what about this: the pilots who did fly over the forest reported being disoriented; some even can't remember how they got to the other side of the forest. Their instruments began to act wildly and ceased operating properly."

"Big deal. The forest is so big they probably last track of where they were. As for their instruments, electronics are well known for not behaving right there. The only place where I had reception was at the lodge and in the village."

"Doesn't that strike you as odd?"

"No. It happens in other forests with logical explanations. Lack of cell towers, magnetic interference. I guess there goes your English Oval theory."

Determined to prove his point, Finn continued. "England Oval, and not quite. There are a number of recorded irregularities as well. There is one in which the master of the lodge wanted to build a gazebo in the tree circle. Every day the workers tried to build the gazebo only to find the next day all the progress they made was gone. Thirty men were then hired to build it in one day and guarded the gazebo with twenty armed men. The next day the master who had ordered the gazebo built and the men who tried building it, woke up floating in the middle of the lake with whatever was left of the gazebo. When they were finally found by a fisherman, there were delirious and suffering from sunburns."

"Ok. One weird instance. So?" Alex shrugged.

"Not just one. In 1822 there was an instance in a small English town there was a young girl named Jane. Her father was a drunk and failed to notice his daughter was deathly ill with smallpox until she was on her deathbed. That night she made such a complete turnaround that you could no longer tell she had been sick and her father stopped drinking that night. During that same period a farmer reported seeing elves and being turned into a rabbit."

"Uh-huh. What else?" replied Alex, motioning with her hand for him to continue.

"Remember Katherine and Emily Winslow?" Finn continued enthusiastically at Alex's nod, "What's really interesting is what happened _after_ they vanished. Katherine and Emily were staying with their guardian, Hugh Roberts, when they began telling stories about the goblins. Worried for his wards' sanity, Hugh asked Stanley Thatcher of the Westcross Asylum to evaluate the girls. Actually Thatcher is quite interesting himself. He was interested in people who accomplished things quite beyond the human capacity. There's a recorded instance of a woman who thought she was a rabbit and could jump much farther than is humanly possible. There's another with multiply personalities who managed to walk on an injured foot without pain because she claimed her other side was the one responsible. There's another-"

Alex broke in. "Finn, is there as point to this?"

"Sorry. But you should really give his journals a read sometime. They're simply fascinating. Anyway, he had been brought to determine the state of the two girls. Eventually he declared them sane, but suffering due to stress. The night upon arriving, he described Katherine's room as looking as if an explosion had occurred with no natural explanation. Later when discussing the state of the girls with their guardian, he looked up and saw him on the ceiling. He claimed that he had been enchanted by the goblin King."

"So what happened?"

"The doctor stayed at the lodge and wrote about him of course. Well until one day he was found hanging upside with a rope around his neck dead."

"That's nice. Anymore stories?" replied Alex flatly, clearly still not impressed.

"Well there is a more recent one. A couple of teenagers supposedly went into the forest one night to investigate the strange happenings. They woke up the next day in trees in nothing but their underwear with all their equipment missing. Oh, there is one more. Remember Charlotte?" Alex nodded once more. "Well her older sister Miranda claimed to know Goblin and would often be seen scribbling it. Nobody else could understand it."

"So what happened to her?"

"She died when she was seventeen due to illness," was Finn's simple response.

"Lovely. So do you think magic is responsible for what happened to that Roberts guy?"

"No. But I do think something unexplained is going on."

"Magic."

"Not magic. Long ago people blamed gods, supernatural forces, and magic for earthquakes, storms, among other things. Of course today we can explain what happened was due to science, not magic. But back then people were superstitious and didn't know any better. Due to their lack of scientific knowledge they explained the occurrences due to magic. I believe something similar is occurring in the Bermuda Triangle and England Oval. Undiscovered scientific principles are responsible for the strange events over the years, not magic."

"So are the undiscovered scientific principles responsible for my missing sister as well?"

Missing the sarcasm, he answered. "Perhaps. Hopefully your investigation will discover what's really going on."

Finn was right. Alex's investigations did discover what really was going on. And his theories were right as well.

****Author's Note****

For starters thanks to JayLah, speederina, and SiriusBlackisSeriuslyfunny333, for reviews. Also thanks for all those who have put this story on alert. It makes me feel good that people are already enjoying the story. I hope it lives up to everybody's expectations.

I've been saving this chapter for a long time. It took a while to gather all the incidents, but was worth it. The only parts that are my own are: the cook falling asleep in the soup, the recent incident, Colette's last name and her year taken was approximated, Jessica's last name and year she was taken, Agnes, Edith, and Alice. The rest of the girls, incidents, and years have been mentioned in the books and on Dunkle's website.

The next chapter was suppose to be two separate chapters, You Got A Friend In Me, and the Rescue Aid Society. However, one of my friends who looks over my chapters before posting, pointed out that they both drag on for a while. I noticed it while writing, so decided to combine them into one chapter, Rescue Aid Society. By drags on, it's basically all about Alex gathering information on her sister's last day from some familiar faces featured in Ever. Not that exciting, but Alex isn't the type to act impulsively. As you've seen in this chapter, she's the type to get all her facts and information, before acting upon it. However, next Friday's chapter will pick up.

In speederina's review she asked if Finn was an engineering major. He's a mechanical engineer, and wants to go on to major in aerospace engineering as well. As for Alex, she's a civil engineer and wants to design structures some day such as bridges, dams, etc... Just a bit more of background on them for those who are curious.

One last thing. The August Challenge is officially up for people to start thinking about. Submissions can't be made until August 1, but it's definitely worth taking a look at. Also, the plot help, and regular plot threads have been posted as well, so be sure to check those out too.


	3. Rescue Aid Society

I don't own the rights to the following: Hollow Kingdom, the song, NCIS, Star Trek, Star Wars and Harry Potter. To get the last four references, read the chapter!

**Rescue Aid Society**

It had been a couple hours since Alex's plane had landed and she had just arrived at the Hallow Hill Inn. After what happened to her sister, the Richardson's had graciously given Alex the room her sister had been staying in. It was a nice gesture but Alex didn't plan on spending a lot of her time in the room besides resting. She did however inspect the room upon arriving for any clue to Alice's whereabouts. There was a full bed with flowery sheets, an antique desk with a chair, and a matching wardrobe. Like everybody before her, Alex found nothing.

Then she heard a knock at the door. Opening it she saw an auburn hair girl. "Sorry for bothering you, but I just heard from my sister, Tilly, the maid who helped you with your bags, that you just arrived. Mind if I come in?"

Alex nodded. Her sister Tilly, had indeed helped her earlier, talking the whole entire time about her newborns and how bright they were. Alex had turned her out; she had more important things on her mind then listening to some prattle about babies. She motioned for the girl to sit next to her on her bed.

"Thanks. My name's Miranda by the way. With all the hub-bub due to your sister's disappearance, I never got a chance to talk to you. I just wanted you to know she was a quiet little thing, but was nice. She helped me with the banshee."

Alex laughed at Candace's nick name. "Yeah, she has that effect on people. Wait, did you say your name was Miranda?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Are you any relation to Miranda and Charlotte Richardson?" inquired Alex.

Miranda nodded her head and answered, "On my dad's side. There were the sisters of one of my great-grandfathers, James Richardson. Why so curious?"

"My friend and I came across them while doing research on the land. Do you know anything about them?"

"Miranda died young and there's a picture of her somewhere here, and Charlotte disappeared. Oh, and there's Miranda journals."

"Journals?" asked Alex, her interest suddenly piqued.

"When she died, my ancestor James, who was her brother, felt guilty for teasing her and what not. He kept a lot of her stuff including the journals that she claimed to practice Goblin in," explained Miranda, matter-of-factly.

"Do you still have them? I'm investigating my sister's disappearance and want to track down every lead possible."

"Sure, I think they're in the attic somewhere. I tried reading them when I was younger, but they were all gibberish to me. I'll see if I can give them to you tonight."

"Thanks."

Miranda got up to leave. Before she did she said, "No problem. I hope you find your sister. She seems a lot better than mine sometimes. Too bad she wasn't taken by the goblins instead of yours."

"Do you believe in them, then?"

Miranda sighed. "I don't know. Before everything no. But now... I don't know what to believe."

Jetlagged, Alex crashed onto her bed not even bothering changing her clothes or pulling down the covers once Miranda left. As much as she wanted to get started as soon as possible, she knew it would be best to start tomorrow after a good night's sleep, and was so tired she didn't really care how she slept. She slept soundly until she heard a noise. Turning over, she soon heard it again, except this time she recognized the noise as a knock at the door. Groggily, she got at of bed and opened it.

"I found the journals," said Miranda. "And since you didn't come down for dinner I thought I would bring you a sandwich," she said, and Alex could see the books in her left hand with the plate in her other.

"Thanks," said Alex as she took the journals. It was then her stomach let out a loud rumble. "My stomach thanks you for the sandwich as well."

Miranda laughed. "Don't worry about it. I didn't mean to disturb you. When you're done eating just put the plate outside your door and we'll get it later." A crying soon filled the air. "That's Aggie, she must be ready to be fed."

Left alone Alex looked over the journals as she greedily ate her sandwich. She had to turn on the light in the room since the sun had just set. There were three journals and Alex soon find herself agreeing with Miranda, the current one that is. They were nothing but gibberish.

If there was one person that could make since of the gibberish, Alex knew it would be Finn. They had agreed for security reasons she would call him every twenty-four hours even if she hadn't found anything important. She had called him once she had landed but that had been it. Picking her plate up and putting the journals in her backpack, she made her way downstairs and found herself face to face with Abigail Richardson, Miranda's mother and part owner of the inn.

"Didn't Miranda tell you to leave the plate outside your room?" she asked Alex, with her hands on her hips.

"Yes, but I was wondering if there was a scanner around here I could use. And since I was coming down anyway I figured I might as well bring my plate as well."

Taking the plate from her hand Abigail said, "That's very thoughtful of you. We have a scanner in the office you can use. Take a left up ahead and it'll be the second door on your right."

Nodding, Alex soon made her there and hooked up her laptop to the scanner. She scanned about ten pages per journal and e-mailed them to Finn along with a message explaining about how there from journals that once belonged to Miranda. Barely a minute after she had pressed send her phone rang.

"Do you have any idea what this is?" asked the voice on the other end. Alex didn't even have to glance at the number to know it was Finn.

"You mean you actually understand them?"

"No, but I recognize the characters as Assyrian," he replied.

"As what?"

Finn then went into lecture mode. "Assyrian. The country of Assyria was located in northern Mesopotamia on the Upper Tigris River, known today as Iraq. It was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom that eventually ruled regional empires. Assur, also known as Subartu was its ancient capital. It was also-"

Having heard enough, Alex interrupted him. "Finn! Do you know what the writing means?"

"Unfortunately, it appears that I'm not quite the Abby to your Gibbs. I just recognize the characters. Analyzing their meaning will take some time," he responded, sounding slightly depressed that he didn't have all the answers.

Alex, sighed. Of course it would take a while. "How did a Victorian girl know Assyrian?"

"Good question. It probably has nothing to do with Alice, but it's certainly a fascinating mystery. How did a girl growing up in Victorian society, with records indicating she never left her country, know an ancient language? I suppose somebody passing through may have taught her. I'll get on this straight away."

"I know I can always count on you Finn," she said with a smile, not that Finn would have been able to see it.

"Well of course you can always count on me. After all, what kind of friend would I be if you couldn't?" What Alex didn't know, was that he was sporting a smile of his own.

* * *

Once she was done with talking to Finn, Alex packed everything up and went back to bed to get ready for the next day. Her alarm woke her at six and she jumped into the shower and thought over her plan of action for the day. First, she was going to visit the village and fair sight to retrace her steps. She also planned to stop and talk to people along the way to see if they had any more information for her than they already gave. If all that failed her she would start her exploration of the forest. She had already made a grid of the area to start at. Although searchers had done something similar, she had Finn's equipment and planned on going to every single spot possible, even the ones that people refused to explore. This was the real reason she had taken a semester off, because she knew it would take months to go over the entire grid.

By seven she was dressed, had eaten breakfast courtesy of Mrs. Richardson, and was out the door on her way to the fairground. Fairground wasn't an accurate term. The correct term was cleared field with a couple of structures. Other than a few structures for bathroom and electricity, nothing remained of the night her sister vanished. Not to be deterred, Alex spent almost two hours going over the ground, searching for even the smallest clue that investigators might have missed. Like them, she found nothing besides bugs and trash.

Next was going into the village and talking to locals. She had already spoken to Miranda, but during breakfast she also took the time to talk to the rest of the staff. All said the same: nice girl, and it was a shame that she went missing. None had any knowledge of who her kidnapper could be or saw anything suspicious in the days leading up to her disappearance. With that done she soon made her way to Hollow Hill Village.

There she explored the little shops and asked people she came across about her sister, and like before, she found nothing useful. She paused and took her time in one shop, Days of Yore. Alice had written about it on the postcard she had sent Alex. It was there she ran into Mrs. Bigelow.

"We're all sorry about what happened to your sister, dear. I only met her once and don't remember much about her, but it's always a terrible tragedy whenever a girl goes missing around here," she said shaking her head.

"Did you know any of the other ones?"

"No. I was only a child myself when those two went missing in the sixties. If I remember right, one was a free-wheeling hippie who ran off after her sister's wedding, while the other was one of those tree-hugging feminists," she said in an off-hand way, as if it was _their_ fault they had been taken.

Ever the persistent one, Alex continued with the questions. "Did you ever hear about any of the girls who went missing before them?"

"Why yes. You see my husband's side of the family used to work up there at the lodge and some of them were around when those two sisters went missing almost two hundred years ago. One was also there when that French girl got taken. She was visiting England with her uncle and stopped by. My husband's uncle at the time was just a boy up there, but he remembered her waking up on the day she disappeared talking about some nonsense about how she was Wisdom and had to decide between Beauty and Power." By the tone Mrs. Bigelow was using, she evidently thought the same as the French girl as she did of the 'free-wheeling hippie' and 'tree-hugging feminist'.

Ignoring the tone, Alex asked another question instead. "Do you believe in goblins then?"

"The one part of me says no. But the other part, the one that's grown up with the stories and now with your own sister vanishing into thin air... I'm starting to. Sorry about not being much help." Alex said thanks and ended up buying a couple things for Finn and her parents. It seemed the polite thing to do after Mrs. Bigelow answered her numerous questions.

She then had lunch at the pub while thinking things over. So far she had found nothing but stories to explain her sister's disappearance. Maybe her parents were right and this was nothing but a fool's mission. The sound of her phone ringing distracted her from her depressing thoughts.

"Finn?"

"I don't think it's relative to the case but I managed to track down a professor in the anthropology department to find a guy to transcribe what the pages say," he said, apparently out of breath.

"And?" asked Alex, her chest filling with hope.

"It's rather odd, but according to him they contain basic words and phrases such as hot water, cold water, sun, caves, etc... almost as if it was a child practicing a new language and learning the basics." And just like that, the hope was gone.

"That would fit with the traveler theory. Basically some guy coming through must have taught her a few words and phrases that she practiced."

"Sorry for it not being anything more," Finn said sincerely.

With the one lead she had gone, Alex was starting to feel as if maybe she would never find her sister. She conveyed these thoughts to the one person she knew that would be able to cheer her up. "Finn... do you think my rescue mission is hopeless? So far I haven't found anything to suggest she's still alive."

Quiet for a couple seconds, Finn finally responded, in what he hoped was an upbeat tone, "As long as you don't believe it's hopeless, I don't think so. Maybe you should give the forest a try."

"I guess. I was just so sure that between you and me we would crack the case wide open. But now..." she sighed.

"A wise man once said, 'we must try not to sink beneath our anguish, but battle on'," he said, trying to boost Alex's spirits.

"Spock?" guessed Alex. She had seen Star Trek, but wasn't too much of a fan.

"Don't be absurd. Dumbledore of course," replied Finn, clearly disappointed by Alex's lack of quotation knowledge.

"Of course," said Alex while rolling her eyes. "But how does that help me?"

"It helps by reminding you that you must not give up hope, but instead must battle on."

"Battle what?"

"Last time I checked I wasn't Yoda and don't have all the answers, I'm doing the best with what I have," said Finn, rather exasperated.

"Yesterday you said you were the Abby to my Gibbs, what happened to that? Besides, you were the Dumbledore to my Harry a couple minutes ago," Alex pointed out.

"You think I'm Dumbledore?" Finn asked genuinely touched.

"Yes, you're Dumbledore. Now act like it and tell Harry what to do."

"Let's see... ah yes. 'The truth, it is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution'."

"That doesn't help me."

"So whiny. Harry was never this whiny to Dumbledore," Finn complained.

"No, he was just angsty instead," retorted Alex.

"That was just a phase. But basically, you must decide if you really want to know what happened to your sister, no matter how ugly it might be."

Alex thought for a couple seconds before finally saying, "Yes."

"Then go step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure."

Laughing, Alex said, "Will do."

****Author's Note****

I'd like to thank noonface, JayLah and speederina for their reviews. Even semi-late ones are appreciated. I know people have busy lives (mine included) but I appreciate it when people take time out of their schedule for just a couple minutes to leave a review. They let me know all my hard work is appreciated.

I said it before, Finn is one of my favorite characters. In this chapter he gets to show off geeky side with all the quotes. There'll be some more of his geekiness next chapter as well, which is titled, When I See an Elephant Fly. It also contains one of my favorite lines I've written so far in Ever and After: I think I just killed Dumbo.

Make of that what you will, and it is sorta kinda related to the title. Anyway, things will definitely pick up from this one. This chapter was long, but was necessary. Alex likes to cover her bases. Plus it let me bring up the Assyrian connection. Dunkle's mentioned on her website that Goblin is based on Assyrian, and Elvish on Sumerian. In the last book of the series, Miranda mentions that she practiced Goblin as a child in journals. I always wondered what happened if somebody today got their hands on the journals. What would they think? And it gave the current Miranda a reason for showing up again in After, besides waiting on Alex.

If you haven't checked out the forums, do so! New threads, and challenges are posted.

And don't forget to read, enjoy and review!


	4. When I See An Elephant Fly

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song. Or the smurfs. Or Dumbo.

I would like to thank speederina, BalletGirl98, JayLah, and SiriusBlackisSeriuslyfunny333 for their reviews. I got a total of four for the last chapter, and made me feel special. Hopefully I'll have just as many for this chapter.

**When I See An Elephant Fly**

The talk with Finn lifted Alex's spirit and she soon found herself renting camping equipment. With her spirits bolstered, she planned to start the first of many nights in the forests. While she packed her equipment, some energy drinks, and other items needed, she started to get herself psyched. _I'm doing this, I'm going to find Alice_. Despite never having camped before in her life, Alex had determination on her side. Along with a wilderness survival book. She left a note for Miranda in her room so nobody would worry about her missing for a while, and then headed out into the forest.

Her first stop was the tree circle. It was the site of the supposed gazebo incident and was close to where the 'investigators' had been a couple months ago. The site took about an hour to reach, but was well worth the walk. As Alex stepped into the center, past the huge circle of trees, she felt a calm that she hadn't felt in months since... well since Alice had been snatched. She sat down and as she looked up at the night sky, she could understand why somebody wanted to build a gazebo here. To get a view like this of the night sky back home, she would have to drive a half hour out of her way to Little Grassy. And then, put up any drunks or druggies that had the same idea. She sighed, Finn would be jealous of a view like this. It was a pity that the gazebo thing didn't work. Alex was willing to bet that the gazebo would be more comfortable than sitting on the ground. Then again, she supposed that she better get used to resting on the ground. She'd be doing a lot of it in the next couple months.

_Get your head of the clouds, Alex, think about Alice. You can come back here later, after you find out what happened to her_. Alex soon went to work unpacking and setting up her gear. She put the ear piece into her right ear and brought out Finn's glasses that he had made her. They looked like a bulky pair of safety goggles, but doubled as night vision and heat vision whenever she wanted. All she had to do was flip a switch on the side. She had also brought out her taser and mace just in case. Finally, she looked slowly around herself to make sure the trees were tight enough around her so nobody could sneak up from behind.

Satisfied with her preparations, she began to wait for something to happen. And waited. And waited. She checked her watch only to see that barely fifteen minutes had passed before she had started to be bored out of her mind. _What am I expecting exactly? Her kidnapper to come out of the woods screaming I did it?_ Alex started to wonder. _But if the gazebo and investigation incidents are true, somebody has to be responsible_.

She put her phone on vibrate so it wouldn't alert anybody close of her presence. It was shortly afterwards, that her head started to go up and down like a bobble head's. _Can't go to sleep, must stay awake for Alice, _she muttered tiredly to herself_._ Alex then grabbed for her bag and pulled out a couple of energy drinks. She quickly gulped a Redbull and a Monster down, figuring that between the two she should be awake for the next couple nights.

Feeling her body full with energy, Alex decided to put on the goggles. She hadn't had them on earlier due to how awkward they were, but now she felt like walking around in them. _Yay for caffeine, a college student's best friend _she giggled to herself_. _She stood up and started to stretch her body to get her blood pumping to help with staying awake. Once done, she grabbed the goggles on the top of her head and switched on the night vision setting. At first she didn't see that much while walking around. But then her right ear heard a twig snap off to the side while her left ear heard nothing. Apparently Finn's earpiece worked, which he would be happy to hear. She then slowly turned her head in the direction of the noise and saw a quick figure dash behind a tree.

_Don't get excited, it could be nothing_. She then switched to heat vision which caused her heart to race. For outlined behind the tree, was a bright red human-shaped figure. _Stay calm, don't let him know you see him. Let's see... maybe I can fool him into attacking me_. "Tripping" over her shoe she fell to the ground spilling the items in her bag everywhere: right in front of where the figure stood. _Come on_, Alex thought, as she began to pick everything up, except for the taser and mace. _Come on, attack me already. I'm a poor defenseless female_. Almost as if hearing her thoughts, the figure moved a little closer and then a little bit more. By that point she was finally able to hear the figure just a few feet away from her on the right. And that's when she made her move.

* * *

"Finn?"

"What's wrong?"

"I think I just killed Dumbo."

Alex paused to let what she just said to Finn to sink in. His response, was certainly not what she expected.

"Do you have some Dip in your possession I was unaware of?"

"What?" was the only word she managed to get out. Here she was freaking out about potentially killing somebody, and all Finn could talk about was dip. Freakin' dip. What did that have to do with anything?

"Dip. A solution used to kill animated characters as seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which Dumbo might I add, had a cameo in. Did you know it was the only time in animation history that Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny appeared on screen together?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Starting to sense Alex was becoming impatient, he decided to clarify. "Well you said that you just killed Dumbo. The last time I checked the only way to truly kill an animated character is by using the Dip."

Alex rolled her eyes. Leave it to Finn to take things too literally. "I didn't mean the actual Dumbo. Just some guy that looks like him."

"Then why didn't you say so in the first place. Now explain about the Dumbo look-alike. I assume he wasn't animated."

Alex took a quick breath in and said, "I decided to explore the tree circle part, you know where the gazebo was suppose to have been built, when I used the glasses-"

"How did they work?" interrupted Finn.

"If you would let me talk you would find out," said an annoyed Alex.

"No need to be so snarky. Continue."

"I was using the glasses and saw somebody duck behind a tree. They came after me and I tasered them," Alex said matter-of-factly.

"Your story makes sense, but I fail to see how killing Dumbo fits in."

"The guy I tasered looks like Dumbo. He has gray skin, a trunk, the ears. The only difference is he walks upright and looks like a human."

"Can he fly?" asked Finn randomly.

Once again, Alex could only manage one word. "What?"

"Despite the improbability, Dumbo could fly." Finn's voice was full of admiration. An elephant had supposedly manage to achieve what he never had.

"You're missing what's important. I just tasered a stranger that looks like DUMBO! It's not a mask, Finn. I felt it. It has heat and feels like skin. And I couldn't find where the mask ends."

"Hmmm... send me a picture of him and I'll analyze it," offered Finn.

"Okay."

"I take it he's alive then?" Finn finally, thought to ask.

"Well since he's breathing I'm assuming so."

"You know what happens when you assume. It makes an ass out of you and me," quoted Finn.

"You do realize you just implied you're an ass," replied Alex, with a smirk on her face.

Finn was silent for a second. He then said, "Send me the picture," and hung up.

"Somebody can't take a joke," muttered Alex under her breath. Taking the picture and sending it to Finn, she then turned her attention to Dumbo. She padded him down for weapons and found a couple knives. After that was done, she duct-taped his hands and feet together. "What do you know, I did learn something from T.V. after all."

"What are you doing to him?" Alex looked up and saw another figure in the shadows. As the figure stepped closer, Alex let out a gasp. For what she saw standing in the tree circle was a smurf.

****Author's Note****

A bit of a cliffie, but it will be resolved in the next chapter, Poor Unfortunate Souls. I would also like to add, that "Dumbo" has been seen before in Ever, and the "smurf" was mentioned in Ever.

JayLah and speederina pointed something out in their reviews from the last chapter that I want to address: the journals. Specifically, why didn't Alex scan all the pages, and shouldn't there be more in the journals concerning goblins that Alex may have missed.

I came up with the journal idea after I had written the chapter. I thought it would be a fun thing to add, and wondered what people would make of the Assyrian in them, if people ever read them. In the end, they were suppose to be nothing but a red herring for Alex and Finn, something to give them false hope.

Now for Alex scanning the journals. I don't think I said the exact amount, but let's go with three journals. Now let's say each journal is roughly 100 pages each. It takes me about a minute to scan a page. So 3x1x100= 300 minutes scanning pages. This means that if Alex had scan every single page, she would have to spend 5 hours doing so. Even if she was able to scan 2 pages at a time, it would still take her 2.5 hours to scan the pages. That's not including the time to attach them all to an email and send.

Mrs. Richardson didn't have to let Alex use her scanner. Because Alex does have some manners, as demonstrated when she was in Mrs. Bigelow's shop and bought items after questioning her, she's not about to take over the computer when she knows the Richardsons use it for business. Now if it was Finn who was doing the scanning, it's a whole other story. So Alex hopes by taking a couple pages from the beginning, middle, and end of each journal, will be enough to get the main points.

Even if Alex and Finn had come across Miranda writing about the goblins, they wouldn't have taken it seriously. They know of the stories of the area go back hundreds of years. They probably would have written it off as a little girl playing pretend. Remember, Alex is logical. For her to believe in goblins, she needs more than stories. She needs to SEE them.

Hence, she actually captures one in this chapter. Of course being Alex, she thinks it's a mask, and sends a picture to Finn to help her figure out what is going on, not even bothering to think she captured a goblin.

Does all that make sense? If I had known that it would cause so many questions and plot issues, I never would have included it. I just thought it would be a fun bonus, and could be a red herring for Alex and Finn, throwing them a bit off the track.

Done with the explanation. Did it help? Anybody else have questions? Let me know in reviews!

Also, don't forget, submissions for the August writing challenge can start be submitted on the 1st, a Monday. And there are more threads in the forums to check out for plot help.


	5. Poor Unfortunate Souls

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

**Poor Unfortunate Souls**

Standing under the stars in the Truce Circle was a smurf. Well, not actually a smurf. To be more accurate it was a guy with blue smurf like skin. At least, Alex thought it was a guy. As he stepped closer Alex was able to get a better look at him. From head to toe, his skin was an unnatural shade of light blue, almost as if he had recently been frozen or drowned. He had bright blond hair that was tied back, and was that pointed ears ? _Great, he's a Spock smurf, _Alex commented internally. He was dressed in some kind of black uniform and would have been the most handsome guy Alex had ever seen, aside from the blue skin, had it not been for the look on his face. It was pure rage.

"I asked," the Spock smurf repeated with ire in his voice, "what are you doing to him?"

Alex simply glared at him. _How dare he_, Alex thought. _How dare he insinuate that I'm the bad guy, when he probably knows where Alice is! _She decided she was not going to act like the guilty party. "Me? _I'm_ not the one going around and kidnapping poor defenseless young girls!"

The Spock smurf was clearly not expecting this reply. "You don't look poor or defenseless to me. In fact, judging by my friend on the ground I would say quite the opposite."

Alex noted how he was not protesting the kidnapping part. "I wasn't talking about me, I was talking about my sister! Where is she?"

"I have absolutely no idea who you're talking about," he denied.

Alex elaborated. "My sister, Alice Thompson, who went missing on June first at a carnival thing in this area." The Spock smurf's eyes lit up in recognition. "So you do know her."

"Not personally. But I may know where she is."

"Then take me to her," Alex demanded.

A few seconds passed and he finally answered, "I can't take you to her," and Alex's glare intensified while he continued, "But I can take you to somebody who can."

"How do I know you're not lying to me?" asked a wary Alex.

"I never lie," he responded, clearly insulted.

She countered with a line from one of her favorite shows, "Everybody lies."

"No, humans lie, goblins do not."

"You're a goblin then?"

"Yes, I'm a goblin."

Alex took this in. She believed in logic and science, not magic and make believe. That had always been Alice. But what she did believe was that the Spock smurf may be the only one who knew what happened to her sister, judging by the glint in recognition in his eye.

Still uncertain, Alex asked, "How do I know I can trust you?"

"Me? You're the one who took out a king's guard who was also my _friend_."

"Oh, you mean Dumbo. I was going to question him about my sister."

"His name is _not_ Dumbo, it's Babar," the Spock smurf said correcting her.

_Another cartoon elephant, how original_. Interrupting her thoughts, he continued, "Before we go visit Marak, who can take you to your sister," he said noting Alex's confused look on who Marak was, "I must insist you hand over the weapons."

"Why?"

"It's my job to make sure no threat enters the kingdom, which clearly you are."

Alex gave him a glare even Batman would be envious of and slowly turned over her knife, taser, and mace.

"And your bags," he added, holding out a blue hand.

"How do I know I"m going to get them back?"

"You don't."

Alex was quiet for a moment while thinking things over before she proposed, "Give me something of yours."

"Pardon?"

"Give me something precious of yours. That way you have to give me my stuff back and let me see my sister."

"Alright," he conceded before pulling out a golden pocket watch. "This has been in my family for years. Be careful with it."

"I'll try but won't promise anything. Now turn around and close your eyes and put your hands over your ears," Alex instructed.

"What?"

"Do what I say so I can hide it. That way you'll never be able to find it without my help."

Relunctantly, he did as was told. Alex walked a bit into the woods making sure to make plenty of noise to confuse him. Satsified with her hiding spot she returned to the tree circle and tapped him. Turning around to face her, "It's hidden. Do you want me to untie your friend or do you want me to?"

"You've done enough to him so far, I think I can take it from here," was the dry response she received.

* * *

Alex looked around at her surroundings. "What's this?" She had been led into a huge cavern. It was about twenty-five feet wide and seemed to go and on into the distance. It was very dim and Alex had to blink a couple times to let her eyes adjust to the darkness.

"This," said the Spock smurf in answer to her question, "is where elf prisoners were kept. The last renovations were done to add a human apartment a century ago."

"Why am I here? I thought you were taking me to the Marak guy who could take me to my sister."

"You humans are so selfish. Did it ever occur to you what time it is? Marak is currently asleep with his wife. When he wakes up in the morning, he'll decide what to do with you then. Until then, you will stay here."

"As a prisoner?" asked Alex in horror.

The Spock smurf pointed out, "You did attack a king's guard after all. The door will be locked. I suggest you try to get some sleep before morning."

As he turned to exit the stone door, Alex cried out, "Wait, what about your watch? You can't find it without me!"

He turned to face her, "Why do I need you when I have my magic?" Then he left Alex alone in the cave.

* * *

It could have been the Monster and Redbull from earlier, or it could have been the anxiety she was feeling about her sister, or even the shock of what was going on, but Alex couldn't sleep. Instead she followed the bubbling fountain of water to the back of the cave only to find that it spiraled inward. At the end was a huge pool of water that was frigid when Alex dipped a finger in to test. _Way to make the most of a small space_. She explored the rooms and found two had small beds that hadn't been used in a while. Going back to where she entered, she found a low table that she had missed earlier which was surrounded by some mats. The look made Alex feel as if she was in Japan.

Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the door opening and a voice saying, "This must be the horrible goblin killer. Kayto I must say, she doesn't look quite as fierce as you said she was."

Kayto, or the Spock smurf as she called him replied, "Don't let her deceive you. She is far cleverer than you give her credit for. Babar is proof enough of that."

"I'll keep that in mind. Now, would you please take a seat," said Marak as he indicated the low table with mats with his right arm. Alex sat down across from him, getting to see him closer. The green scales and his overall appearance reminded her of the GEICO gecko. _What is it with cartoon characters around here? _Meanwhile Kayto stood, not trusting Alex enough to sit by her.

"Where's my sister?" she demanded.

Marak answered her."Kayto did say you were rather adamant about that. But there are some other things that we have to discuss first."

"Such as?"

"Such as the matter of my revenge."

Noticing the gleeful look in Kayto's eye, Alex said hesitantly, "Revenge? For what?"

Chuckling at her reaction, Marak responded, "You attacked, captured, and had further plans for one of my subjects. Did you honestly think that would go unpunished?"

The thought hadn't occurred to Alex at all. Instead she had been thinking about how to find her sister. "So what is my punishment? Death?"

Kayto leaned forward, curious as well. Marak noticed this and continued, "Don't be absurd. I have a much better revenge in mind. You see goblins love revenge, and if I didn't pursue it friends or family members, such as Kayto here would take revenge on Babar's behalf, and I assure you their's would be much worse than mine. Don't look so down, Kayto, I assure you, she won't like it."

"Why won't I like it?"

"It requires that you marry a goblin."

Alex was quiet for a few minutes in shock. "But... but I'm human. That wouldn't work!"

"Actually, it would. Male goblins can marry female dwarves, elves, and _humans_." He paused letting this sink it. "In fact it strengthens the high goblin families. And with a strong human such as yourself, the effects should last for several generations. Of course, I'll at least let you pick the goblin yourself. If you don't pick one in a year I will choose for you."

Alex bit her lower lip thinking things over. "What if I refuse?"

"If you refuse, you'll be married to the goblin of my choice against your will and will never see your sister again." Noticing the look on her face, Marak added, "However, if you cooperate, I will let you see your sister once a month, if her husband agrees."

Alex began to protest. "Once a month, that's not fair!"

"Elves are awake at night. Goblins and humans are awake during the day. If I let you see her everyday you'd be pining for the night, which wouldn't be healthy. Not when you'll be married to a goblin husband and have goblin children. If you behave, I'll let you out with Inanna at the full moon. It's when the wives and future heirs meet together at the Truce Circle to visit. I will contact her to arrange a meeting for tonight, on a good faith gesture. So what is your choice?"

Once again Alex was quiet for a bit, and Marak was more than happy to sit there and let her think.

_I'll be able to see Alice, but will never see my family again, and how will my parents deal with both daughters missing? And Finn, what will he do without me... maybe he can figure a way out of here for me_... Finally she once again spoke. "I want something else."

"You're not exactly in a position to make many demands," he pointed out.

"It's not for me, it's for my parents. I don't think they could deal with losing both of their children."

"Interesting point, but what do you suggest? Letting you return only for you to never return to your poor goblin husband?"

True, the idea had occurred to Alex, but she was doubtful of being able to get away with that. Now Finn was her only hope out. "Just let me send them letters letting them know I'm alright. I met a guy and we eloped..." her voice trailed off at the thought. _They'll never believe that I did such a thing... not that it'll matter in the end really..._

"Which of course will be the complete truth. Very well, I'll mail your letters. So you agree then?"

"One more thing. I want this in writing."

"Kayto was right, you are a clever girl. If I wasn't married already I might consider making you my wife right now.," Alex frowned at this, and seeing it Marak responded, "Of course I am married to a lovely elf who I wouldn't trade for even you. Kayto bring me some paper and ink so we can get this signed and the deal over with."

Doing as told Kayto walked away while Marak asked, "I am curious, how did you managed to find and capture Babar exactly?"

Not wanting to give all her secrets away, especially concerning Finn, Alex carefully censored her answer, "I found him using heat vision goggles and then tasered him. It wasn't that hard, honestly."

"I'm sure there are very few things that are hard for you," Marak chortled. By this point Kayto had reentered the room with the supplies. Taking them Marak wrote out the terms: Alex would agree to marrying a goblin within a year, and Marak would let her out to visit her sister and mail her letters.

Alex gave it a look over and satisfied with what she saw, she signed. Noting her signature he responded, "Welcome to my kingdom Alexandra Thompson."

"Call me Alex."

****Author's Note****

Big thanks to speederina, JayLah, and SiriusBlackisSeriuslyfunny333 for reviews. Reviews let me know how I'm doing as an author.

And so the plot thickens. I've been waiting to post this chapter for a long time, because after this, things pick up quite a bit. Also, congrats to JayLah who went back and found Babar in Ever. Kayto was mentioned there as well, but briefly and not described. He's Kayta's brother, who married Babar recently. And he'll have a bigger role in After.

Next chapter is Put That Thing Back Where It Came From Or So Help Me. Technically not an official Disney song, but it appears in the ending credits of Monsters Inc. which is good enough for me.

Also, the August Writing Challenge is now open to submissions! So get to it!

As always, read, enjoy, and review!


	6. Put That Thing Back Where It Came From

I do not own the rights to the song or Hollow Kingdom.

**Put That Thing Back Where it Came From or So Help Me**

Kayto confronted Marak as soon as they left the human in the cave. "That's it? Since when is forcing a human to marry a goblin revenge?"

Marak turned to face the captain of his guard. He knew he wouldn't be happy with the revenge Marak had enacted. So Marak would just have to help his lieutenant reach the same conclusion Marak did. Walking back up to the palace he asked, "Why are you so determined to take revenge on the girl?"

"She hurt Babar obviously."

"Your friend I take it," said Marak nonchalantly.

Kayto looked at his king in disbelief. Babar was more than a friend, he was almost a brother, and had recently become his brother-in-law. "He's more than a friend and you know it."

"A brother, then?"

"Yes. What's the point of this?" demanded Kayto.

Marak sighed. "Give me a minute to get to it. I suppose as a brother then, you'd be willing to do anything, go anywhere, to secure his safety?"

"Of course," replied Kayto bluntly.

"Now, how do suppose the girl, Alex, felt when her sister disappeared? You and I know she was taken by Nir, but how do you think it appeared to her family? What awful thoughts were in Alex's head do you suppose, when she attacked Babar?"

Silent, Kayto was thinking this over. He had read books about humans and was disgusted by their behavior. Murder, rape... those had to be only some of the fates that the girl had considered that could have happened to her sister. Continuing, Marak said, "With that in mind, how is what she did any different from what you would do for Babar, or even Kayta for that matter? True, she did attack him, but only because she believed he had information about her sister. So although she did attack one of my own, she did it because she believed she was acting in her sister's best interest. Are you now satisfied with your king's choice of revenge?"

"I suppose," conceded Kayto after much thought. If Babar or Kayta, or any other goblin had gone missing in a similar manner, he would have acted the same as the girl, Alex had done. How could he fault her when he would have done the same?

"I'm glad you agree with your king. It'd be quite a shame if you didn't. Hate to have you going off and performing revenge on your own. Now, you've had a long night. Why don't you go to bed? On your way you can check on Babar. I believe that he's awake by now in his apartment with Kayta no doubt attending to him." Kayto smiled at this. His sister was like their mother. If one had even the slightest injury she would put them to bed for a day at least to make sure it was nothing serious. She had died last winter, and his father was still taking the loss hard.

By this point they had reached the guard quarters. "See you tomorrow then," said Kayto with a bow to his king. He planned on going to bed and visiting Babar, but he had somebody else to visit first.

* * *

As Kayto walked to his destination, he turned over the past night's events in his head. Humans wandering onto goblin land was nothing new, especially since it had become a Reserve. Guards on duty were told to simply keep an eye on them and make sure they did no harm. So when Babar had checked in on his watch and reported that that there was a human girl in the truce circle who was walking around erratically, Kayto responded with orders to put a sleeping spell on her to calm her down until morning. He hadn't thought there would be any issues. That was until Babar didn't check in when he was suppose to. Not sure what to think, he went to investigate only to see the girl tying up his best friend. Somehow, she had managed to take out a trained king's guard without receiving a scratch. In hindsight, he could have used any number of spells on her even with the Truce Circle's limitations, but he was so enraged at her that the thought of using any spells went out of his head.

And then she had acted like he was the guilty one, accusing _him_ of taking her sister. If her sister was anything like her, he doubted anybody would _want_ to take her. Furthermore, she had the gall to accuse _him_, the goblin king's lieutenant of lying, of all things. But once she mentioned the name and when the girl had vanished, he realized that she was talking about the elf king's Wife. The one responsible for the wife debacle a couple months ago and that had caused Eresha, the goblin king's Wife's sister to join the goblin kingdom. Not that anybody saw her that much.

As for the angry girl in front of him, he eventually decided it would be best for his king to put up with her madness. After of course taking her weapons. It would be irresponsible as a lieutenant to bring an armed enemy into the goblin kingdom. It was why he had brought her to the elf prison so no innocent goblins could be harmed by her. But not before she had demanded something precious of his. He only had the pocket watch that had belonged to an ancestor of his, Seylin, a strong elf cross like himself. The sneaky human had ordered him to turn around, close his eyes, and cover his ears so she could hide it. Not that it mattered. He would just use his magic later to track it down.

He had then led the human and locked her in the prison. The look on her shocked face was priceless as she realized she would have to spend the night there. With a smile of satisfaction on his face as he walked away, Kayto then dropped off the still incapacitated Babar at his apartment with Kayta before writing his report and waiting for the goblin king to wake up. From there he had informed him of the events that occurred while the king had been asleep much to the king's amusement. After checking in on Babar and determining he would be fine with some sleep, and assuring a worried Kayta that he would be fine as well, he moved on to visiting the prisoner with Marak.

When his king brought up the topic of revenge, Kayto was filled with glee. If the king needed suggestions, Kayto had more than plenty. Taser her a couple times with the device to see how she liked it, turn her into a monkey that the goblin children could play with, take away her ability to move or talk forever, give her horrible dreams from which she would never awake, shrink her and then crush her only to heal her and repeat the process over again, and the list went on. To say he was shocked when the goblin king had determined her revenge was to marry a goblin was an understatement. Humans had been made to marry goblins for years against their will, and never as revenge. Marak had even given into her other demands, the letter writing and contract part.

It was only after leaving the girl did Marak finally explain his revenge to Kayto, which he hated to admit, did make sense. As Kayto reached this conlusion, he looked up and saw that his feet had brought him to his final destination. _Might as well get this over with_. He then knocked on the door and was greeted by the sight of the girl, now in her pajamas.

_Probably didn't get much sleep last night_, he thought guiltly. _Her own fault for not taking my advice. There were beds down there after all. I think_. With the anger gone from his mind, he finally paid more attention to her features. He supposed she was attractive by human standards. Her hair was a goldish brown that was currently pulled back into a ponytail. Judging by the fly aways it had a tendency to frizz and pouf out. Her eyes were a hazel color and had a determined look in them.

"What do you want?" she asked him, while giving him another one of the glares that Kayto had become accustomed to.

He cleared his throat. "I, um... just wanted to say I was sorry for the way I treated you." Except it came out in a jumbled mess that was spoken very softly.

"What?" she asked, not being able to understand him.

"I said," being careful to enunciate each word so he wouldn't have to repeat the sentence again, "I am sorry for the way I treated you earlier."

She quirked an eyebrow at him, not quite sure to believe him. "What brings about this change of heart?"

"Marak explained to me why you acted the way you did. Considering that I would have done the same for my own sister and even Babar in a similar case, I can't blame you."

With his apology done, he turned to walk quickly away. Not before a cry of "Wait," reached his ears. _So close and yet so far_. He turned and started to slowly walk back. The door was cracked open, but the girl was nowhere. Starting to wonder if it was a prank, she finally reappeared with a shoe of all things. She then reached into it and brought out to his surprise, his watch.

Handing it to him she said looking down, "I'm sorry for the way I treated you too."

Kayto turned over the watch in his hand inspecting it. Surprised, he found no faults with it. It was still ticking along with the correct time, no obvious scratches or marks. The inscription on the back was as clear as ever: _To Seylin, M_. He then looked up at her, Alex, was what she said her name was. _No wonder she didn't bat an eye when I said my magic would lead it to her hiding place in the forest. It wasn't up there and she knew it_.

Sensing his thoughts almost, she clarified. "I didn't know if I would make it back to the spot, so I thought it would be better to misdirect you and take it with me in case I need it. I'm still trying to adjust to the whole goblin thing, but... so far you seem to be trust worthy. I also can't blame you for treating me when I probably would have done the same as well."

"So..." said Kayto hesitantly, "I suppose we should try to get off to a friendlier start?"

"I guess. I'm Alex," she responded sticking her hand forward to shake.

"Kayto," he responded while clasping her hand.

Both were silent for a while until Alex finally decided to break the awkward silence by asking, "How's Dum... Babar I mean?" correcting herself at the last moment.

"He'll be fine with some sleep. Kayta, my sister and his wife, is looking after him now."

"Good... Tell him I said sorry, for what I did."

"Oh I will," said Kayto, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically, wanting to end the unpleasant conversation as soon as possible. And with that he hurried off before she could say another word.

* * *

Alex watched as the Spock smurf, no Kayto, she mentally corrected herself, walked away. After he and Marak had left her in the prison, an old woman named Aggie had guided her to her new room. Aggie reminded her of her own grandmother, kind and warmly. While walking, Alex had been more busy trying to absorb that fact that goblins and magic existed, and the fact her sister had married an elf, than listening to Aggie. So en-rapt with her thoughts, she hadn't even noticed that Aggie had stopped until an arm jerked her back.

"It's a lot to take in," Aggie had said, "But you'll get used to it eventually. Now, this is your room. I'm right next door if you need anything. While Marak, that's my son if you were wondering, was busy talking to you, I brought the stuff Kayto had and put them in your room. I also had some of the other guards grab the rest of your things from your room at the inn and convince the staff that you had left so nobody would worry. If I were you I'd get some rest. Wouldn't want to be dead on your feet when you meet your sister tonight, after all?" Alex nodded, overwhelmed by it all. Now that she had found out what happened to her sister, the anger had left along with the strength she had. She was going off fumes now.

Once Aggie had left she had entered the room and changed into her pajamas. Normally she would have inspected the room, but now she only wanted to sleep. She checked her phone, which was still on vibrate, and found a bunch of message from Finn demanding to know what was going on. Not having the energy left to go as detailed as he would want, she simply texted that he shouldn't worry and she would explain everything later once she had some much needed sleep. This of course would drive him insane, but for the time being, Alex didn't care.

She had been about to go to bed when there was a knock at her door. She had expected it to be Aggie, only to find Kayto who then proceeded to apologize. By this point, Alex could see where he was coming from and admitted it. When he was starting to walk away, Alex decided it would probably be a good faith gesture on her part to return his watch. He had taken her to the guy who was arranging the meeting with her sister and all her belongings had been returned after all. He seemed surprised when she put it in his hand, no doubt expecting it to be damaged. From there they had agreed to start again and Alex had even remembered to inquire about Babar. Knowing the truth of everything now, she was genuinely concerned about his well being. Especially after finding out he was married.

He quickly left, clearly wanting to end the conversation quickly. Alex didn't blame him. She wanted it to end fast as well so she could go to bed. She climbed into bed with sleep coming instantly. Her dreams consisted of a mixture of the Lord of the Rings and Star Trek characters chasing after smurfs.

****Author's Note****

Thanks goes to JayLah, and speederina, my much appreciated reviewers for the last chapter.

So this chapter explained more from Kayto's POV, and pointed out the fact that if Alex hadn't tasered Babar, the goblins would have left her alone. If course, if that was the case, she'd have much longer to go before seeing her sister. Which she will, in the next chapter, I Thought I Lost You.

I'm happy to say, that After, is done! As in, it's all written minus some editing. Now that's it's done, I have some good news, and bad news.

Good News: You'll see two weddings in After. Others might be mentioned, such as Kayta's and Babar's, but two will be featured, and I'm pretty sure, there's at least one couple nobody will guess.

Bad News: Before After ends, there will be three deaths.

Feel free to speculate, but I won't confirm and deny anything for fear of ruining the plot. But just prepare yourself for stuff up ahead.

Finally, the August Writing Challenge is open, so start submitting some fics!


	7. I Thought I Lost You

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

**I Thought I Lost You**

Alice was with Nir in his office. Although it was originally brought about by an elf king who wanted to escape his chatty wife, Nir wasn't bothered by Alice's presence. It had actually become their evening routine. They would wake up, Nir would feed Alice and rub her feet, then they would make their way to the office. There Nir would look over reports from his guards that had been on duty, along with other things he needed to do for the night. Alice meanwhile would sit on a mat and read. At first she had been interrupting Nir every couple of minutes wondering what a certain word was, but after four months her Elvish was coming along. Now she was only interrupting him about every hour. She considered it progress.

While going over the reports from last night, he came across a letter from the goblin king. It wasn't that much of a surprise. Whenever he wanted to tell Nir something during the day he would send one of his own guards who would give it to one of Nir's guards who would put it in Nir's office. What was surprising was the contents of it.

"What is it?" asked Alice, seeing his puzzled expression.

"I'm not sure... It's from Marak, and as usual he's being his cryptic self. It just says that it would be in my best interests to meet him at the truce circle and bring you as soon as possible."

"Me?" exclaimed Alice. "What would he want with me? The full moon isn't for another three weeks."

"Who knows with him. The part that has me puzzled is the last line, he mentions it'll be a family reunion. We'd better get going. If we wait too long he'll get impatient and will start playing with the stars. The last time I was late he rearranged them into a picture of me with pigtails. Thank goodness it was overcast otherwise the humans would have been suspicious."

Even though Alice had learned a lot about magic in the last couple months, she still had to ask, "Is that even possible? Rearranging the stars?"

"He didn't actually alter their locations, just the way they appeared on earth. Even he's not stupid enough to try a feat like that. I think," answered Nir.

Just then his secretary poked his head in and said, "Sir, the stars are moving..."

"Come on Alice. We'd better get going. Who knows what image he'll do this time." Alice giggled as she got up to leave. One thing she loved about her new life was the way Nir and Marak interacted. They reminded her of two little kids sometimes with the pranks and comments they made.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Trust me, it's better if you don't know," with that, Alice led the way to the truce circle with a very confused Nir behind her. She'd never tell him, but that confused look his otherwise perfect face would make, was another thing she loved about her new life as well.

* * *

Impatient as always, Alex paced around the truce circle. Around five Aggie had knocked on her door with some food and letting her know they'd be leaving in two hours. Not realizing how hungry she was she quickly ate it. From there she got dressed and explored her room for the first time. There was a bed, a desk, bookcase, dresser and wardrobe. Her bags were spread across the floor, begging to be put away. Off to the right was another room which turned out to be the bathroom. To Alex's delight it mostly resembled a human bathroom. The differences being the design of the toilet, sink, and tub seemed to have been carved out of the walls instead of being placed in the room.

There was a window in her main room, or to more accurate a rectangular opening with no glass. _I suppose being underground means no weather, so they wouldn't need glass_. Curious Alex tried to drop a pencil out the opening. To her amazement, it had only gone a foot before snapping back inside the room like a rubber band. _Magic, I guess_. She tried a couple more times before getting bored. Instead she looked out the window taking in the view. Apparently she was very high in what she guessed was the main structure. All above was darkness that turned into rock, with an oddly colored part in the middle. From her view she could see tiny structures lit up that reached into the distance and some valley of sorts. Eventually there was another knock on her door, this time Marak letting her know they were going to the surface.

He was with a gorgeous woman, who he introduced to her as Inanna, his wife. Alex knew she was no beauty queen and normally didn't care, but with Inanna's slender frame, rich dark hair, and dark eyes, even she couldn't help but feel a bit self-conscious in Inanna's presence. However Inanna didn't act like the stuck-up beauty Alex thought she would be. She knew a number of girls would be envious of Inanna's looks and would try to make others envious as well.

Instead, she spoke with a soft, kind voice that reminded Alex of Alice. "Normally I go out with Marak, Nir, and Alice for the full moon, but once Marak mentioned you were going out to meet your sister, I couldn't resist joining. I think it's quite brave of you to make such a deal with the goblins to see your sister," Inanna said.

Clarifying, Marak spoke up. "Inanna here is an elf, and all elves love the stars and moon and hate being away from them underground. Traditionally, once an elf married a goblin they were never let out for fear of angry relatives trying to recapture them. But the last couple elf wives have proved extraordinary," he said as Inanna blushed, "and deserving to go outside. For each full moon, I join Inanna along with Nir and Alice in the Truce Circle. That's when you'll see your sister every month."

"I thought it was the Tree Circle?" asked a puzzled Alex.

"To the humans yes. But goblins and elves were not always on such good terms and the Truce Circle was made so they could meet peacefully and discuss peace terms if necessary."

They had been walking the whole entire time while talking, and Alex soon found herself looking at a glass mirror. Except, the texture looked a bit off, and Alex carefully touched the surface with her index finger. She yanked it back in surprise, for although the surface was cool, it was also wet. Marak laughed at her reaction and went on to explain how it worked. Although the water was suspended on the rock wall by magic, the user need only to imagine a nearby location in their mind, and it would appear on the water's surface. It was apparently the goblin's version of a camera monitoring system with a little something extra. Alex tried to memorize what Marak was saying, so she could tell Finn later. No doubt he would want all the details.

"There's another way we get there, but this way is much faster," said Marak waving his hands, and soon the image of the of the Truce Circle appeared. "Now, go ahead and walk through." Hesitant, Alex saw Inanna walk through, only to appear in the image on the water, safe and sound. Marak gestured for Alex to do the same. She was quite surprised. One moment she had been in the cave and the next she was standing outside on the ground, with only a cool refreshed feeling on her face to show for the transition. Glancing around she saw Inanna laying on her back while gazing up at the stars with Marak soon joining her.

"See," he said, "nothing to worry about. Now we just sit and wait for Nir to show up. Which knowing him will take a while."

Alex joined them for a while to look up at the stars. "Do you love the stars too?" Inanna had asked.

"A friend of mine does. He taught me some of the constellations and got me into astronomy a little bit," Alex admitted.

"I'm sorry," said Inanna, to Alex's surprise.

"For what?"

"For," answered Marak, "Making you think of the friend that you'll never see again."

"Oh." Never seeing her family and friends again hadn't quite sunk yet. Then again, Marak and Inanna didn't know that she still had a way to communicate with Finn at least. Bored, she got up and started to pace around the truce circle. She had never been the patient type. Just when she was about to ask if her sister was actually coming, a familiar voice rang out. "Alex!"

* * *

Alice and Nir had finally reached the Truce Circle. Nir had been about to comment on the lack of Marak's patience, when his wife suddenly cried out, "Alex!" and broke free of his hand to run across the circle and into the embrace of someone in the circle. Getting closer Nir saw it was a human girl, who was a bit taller than Alice, but still had similar features.

"What's going on?" the elf king demanded of the goblin king.

"Didn't you read the letter I sent you? A family reunion of course. Nir, meet your sister-in-law, Alex, the fierce goblin attacker."

Nir and Alex took in each other's appearance. Alex saw a gorgeous man that seemed to fit the bill of the prince charming her sister had spent years waiting for. A bit too pretty to be real, but he still had a commanding air about him. Nir saw a determined human who seemed to be deciding whether or not he was good enough for her sister. Being sized up was not something he was used to, and it unnerved him a bit. Not that he would ever admit it.

Alice was the one who spoke first. "But Alex, what are you doing here?" Nir was wondering the same thing himself. The overgrown lizard was no help, he was simply smirking at Nir's reaction.

"I came to find you... even though the searchers never found anything, I needed to know the truth."

"But didn't Candace deliver my message?"

Alex simply rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but I didn't know if she made it up to make herself seem less guilty or if it was true."

At this point, Nir spoke up. "How did you find the goblins?"

"She attacked and captured one," explained Marak, now more than happy to talk, and Alex blushed in embarrassment. "Hence the fierce goblin attacker part. Eventually we made a deal. Alex would be able to see her sister each month and is required to marry a goblin within a year."

"Oh Alex," said Alice, "I'm so sorry. If it wasn't for me..."

At this Alex cut her off. Trying to sound cheerful she said, "It's really not that bad. I mean, at least I get to choose, and Marak said he'll mail letter to mom and dad so they won't worry... and it could be worse. You could be dead."

Alice looked at the ground at this. When Candace had mentioned something similar in the truce circle all those months ago, Alice had tried not to think too hard about it. The thought of her family not knowing what happened to her, and as a result mourning her, was quite painful. She silently wondered if she had a grave somewhere.

Trying to lighten the mood, Alex said, "So... how is Nir and living with elves?"

Alice's face lit up. "He's so nice along with the elves. Nobody takes advantage of me, and although they do tease, it's only because they're so playful. Nir's been teaching me Elvish and even how to dance without tripping over my feet." She was quiet for a while before continuing, "It's really not so bad. I mean, it could be worse..." The unspoken line of, 'I could be dead', hung in the air between the two sisters.

"So... how are the goblins?" asked Alice, trying to continue a conversation.

"Okay, I guess. Besides Marak I've only met a couple."

"Oh. I don't know if I could do that, marry a goblin," Alice replied with a shake of her head.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, I haven't seen many, but I have read about them. Goblin genetics are unstable unlike the elves. They're not the cute and cuddly creatures like in the Labyrinth with David Bowie, but have fangs, and claws, and come in all sorts of sizes and kinds. I don't think I could handle all the sights," said Alice shuddering.

Alex thought of the few goblins she had seen. Besides Marak, there had only been Kayto and Babar. "I don't know... so far all the goblins I met remind me of cartoon characters."

Alice laughed at that. Just like Alex to take something fantastical and relate it to something she already knew and was comfortable with. It was then Alex realized, that even though she was going to have to marry a goblin, it was worth hearing her sister laugh again.

****Author's Note****

Thanks to JayLah and speederina for reviews! I like to know what people think of the story so far.

Next chapter is Be Our Guest, and it finally sinks in to Alex, what she's agreed to, and she's not to happy about it.

I would also like to add, that so far we have two submissions for the writing challenge. I should be submitting mine this Friday. I know Aggie mentioned it once in Ever to Inanna, and she'll explain a bit more to Alex on Friday, but it's what my fic will be about: how Aggie meets Marak. Be sure to check it out.

As always, read, enjoy, and review!


	8. Be Our Guest

I do not own the rights to the song or Hollow Kingdom.

First off, a couple of announcements. There's a poll up over at the Hallow Hill Lodge that has nine different options for the next writing challenge. So go over there and vote for your favorite choice. Even if it's not chosen next month, doesn't mean it won't be chosen the following month. Hurry, because it's only to be up for a couple more days.

Speaking of the challenges, there is now an official community, the Hallow Hill Lodge Writing Challenges Archive that contains all submissions to the writing challenges.

Also, my entry, Happily, is now up. It's about how Aggie met Marak Owlfeathers, the current Marak's father. There's a paragraph in this chapter that mentions it briefly, but the story elaborates it.

Finally, for those interested, I'm officially a Beta Reader and am currently accepting requests. Apparently writing fics, the forum, and a job/school isn't enough for me. If interested, check out my profile and click on Beta Reader Profile, then PM me.

**Be Our Guest**

It had been two day since Alex had seen her sister, and she still had three weeks left until the next visit. Upon getting back to her room, she finally called Finn to update him. After being interrogated for several hours, Finn had finally forgiven her for not talking to him in twenty four hours. After making her promise it would never happen again of course. Otherwise he'd send the entire United States army over to investigate. Alex had no doubt he could.

His reaction to the whole goblin/elves situation was mixed. It went against the science and logical part of him, but excited the Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter side of him. It also explained why he had such a hard time examining the photo. He couldn't find any signs of make-up, a costume, or being a fake, but didn't have a rational explanation for the figure either. And to top it off, his theories about the 'English Oval' as he called it, along with the disappearances being caused by a group of mysterious people hiding in the woods turned out to be correct. Once he realized that, it took an hour before Alex could finally get his ego to shut up.

Besides talking to Finn, she slept, ate the food Aggie brought to her, and sulked. Normally she would have been all over the kingdom exploring it, but what was the point when she'd have the rest of her life to do so? She wasn't the type to sit around and do nothing, but ever since that night when Alice had talked about the goblins, Alex had no motivation to go out and do anything. Going out would mean accepting her fate. Going out would mean having to meet and flirt with goblin men, and how could Alex manage to do that when she couldn't even manage it with human men? Sure she had plenty of male friends, after all she was a girl in engineering, but they were just that, friends. People to go to class with, hang out, work on homework. Not flirt and go out with. To top it off, Alex wasn't a girly girl. She didn't own any dresses, wear makeup, or date. Alice did more of that than she ever did. It wasn't that she wasn't interested in guys, she was, but she was so used to being treated like one them, that being treated like a girl would have been awkward. The guy she'd ever gotten the closest to was Finn, and with the way he was, she'd probably be dead by the time he would work up the courage to ask her out.

In addition, if she didn't go out, she could continue living in the denial that goblins and magic didn't exist. That the world was still sane and logical and her sister hadn't married an elf, and Alex wasn't going to have to marry a goblin. There was one part of her brain that knew everything she had seen and experience could only be true due to magic, but the other half kept insisting it could all be a dream. Alex wanted to believe that side the most. But for the time being, the longer she stayed in her room, the longer she didn't have to face her fate.

It was in her room on the second day that Aggie finally forced her to get out of bed. "You've had more than enough time to sulk," she said while trying to take away the pillow Alex had grasped firmly over her head. "Now it's time to get out and start your life again."

A mumbling noise was Alex's response. "I know you don't want to. But do you want Marak to pick a groom for you instead?" This time Aggie was answered with a groan. "Well then get up and I'll take you on a tour of the kingdom. And I should know since I've explored every corner of this place." Seeing as Alex didn't answer this time, Aggie decided it was time for something drastic.

Alex let out a shriek as a pitcher of cold water was poured over her body. "Now you have to get up. I'll leave you alone to get dressed, but if this door isn't opened in ten minutes, you're not going to like what I have in store. And I promise you, it has nothing on the water." With that, Aggie walked out of the room, leaving a dripping Alex behind wondering what exactly she had gotten herself into.

* * *

Ten minutes later she was dressed, hair combed, and relatively dry. Instead of having the door open, she was outside waiting for Aggie. Alex didn't want to know what her other plan was. "I used to do the same thing to Marak when he was younger and didn't want to go to class," said Aggie coming up to her. "Of course, he soon learned how to use his magic to protect him, but then I just had to be more creative with waking him up." Alex grimaced at this, while Aggie continued. "His father was no help of course. Thought the whole thing was hilarious. Pointed out that Marak was technically learning how to use his magic," she remembered wistfully.

Unsure of what to say, Alex instead asked, "So where are we going exactly?"

"Well," answered Aggie, "Seeing as how it's eight, I would say the dining hall for breakfast."

Feeling like an idiot for not figuring it out, Alex began to follow Aggie down the hallway. Up to this point, Marak had told the goblins to stay away from Alex to give her time to adjust. It was why he suggested that his mother show Alex around since she was a human herself. After hearing reports that Alex hadn't come out of her room for two days, he decided it was time for Alex to start getting used to living with goblins. It was for this reason that Alex was overwhelmed by the sights she saw on the way. Until then, the only goblins she had seen were Marak and Kayto. Now she was in a sea of color, feathers, claws, eyes, fur, and other visions that she couldn't quite comprehend. She had it found it comforting to associate the appearance of Kayto and Marak with characters she already knew. Marak was the Geico gecko and Kayto was the Spock smurf. But now, looking at the variety of creatures, she realized that Sesame Street, the Muppets, Monsters Inc, and every other animated character combined didn't have anything on these people.

She suddenly felt a hand on her arm. Turning she saw it was Aggie. "It was overwhelming for me as well, but you'll get used to it. And you have the bonus of being sober the first time seeing them."

"Wait, you were drunk?"

"As a skunk, dear. I might have taken some drugs too, I don't really remember. You see, my sister was getting married at the time to my fiance. He choose her over me, saying he wanted a 'normal' wife. So at the reception, I drank more than I should of and wandered off into the woods. Poor Marak, it's the goblin king's title by the way, he wasn't expecting to take a wife that night. But before he knew it, he had a drunk, sobbing, girl in his arms," she smiled at the next part. "I don't remember what happened next, but according to him, I kept asking if he thought I was pretty and normal. He said that he thought I was very pretty and loved that I wasn't normal. That night we married. Of course, the next day I woke up with the worst hangover ever. I thought that I was still drunk and Marak was just part of it. It took him several days to convince that the goblins were real. And the best part was they loved my eccentricities that my family didn't. "

"Sounds like you really loved him."

"Oh, I still do. Now let's get a move on to breakfast. Lefou's tarts are always the first to go."

* * *

Breakfast was... interesting. She sat next to Aggie who was seated next to Marak and Inanna. Kayto even eventually joined them and started a conversation with them in Goblin that Alex didn't even bother to try to comprehend. Trying to ignore all the glances from the curious goblins, she concentrated on her food instead. It was the first time Alex had ever used chopsticks to eat bacon. Apparently, goblins thought that using forks to stab their food was insulting to it, and instead used their hands. Aggie once learning of this, mentioned the idea of chopsticks to eat instead. It had taken off at the time as a fad, and eventually the goblins returned to using their hands. There were some, however, the finicky goblin who wasn't fond of getting dirty, that still used them. Also, Aggie had been right, Lefou's tarts were delicious and were gone within minutes after Alex sat down.

Once done, she turned to Aggie and asked, "Now what?"

"Well, I have to meet somebody shortly, but I thought Kayto might be able to show you around."

"What?" exclaimed Kayto and Alex at the same time.

"Excellent idea," said Marak, eavesdropping on the conversation.

"But, surely you have other more important things for me to?" asked Kayto, trying to get out of it.

"What's more important than showing our newest resident around?" Kayto frowned. He knew what Marak was trying to do. He was trying to set up Kayto and Alex just like he had tried with Kayto and Eresha, which turned out to be disaster. No doubt Marak had high hopes with Kayto's strong elf blood and Alex's human blood. While it was certainly true that marrying a non-goblin bride was quite the honor, especially as Marak's lieutenant, Kayto wasn't so sure if they could get along well enough though. Judging by the frown on Alex's face she was thinking the same.

Not to be deterred, Marak took their silence as a yes. "Well great. What don't you two kids get started? It'll take a week at the rate you're going."

Kayto simply glared at him. They both got up, but not before Kayto spoke in a low whisper that only the goblin king could hear, "Expect some revenge coming your way." Marak simply laughed.

* * *

Kayto's idea of a tour was to point out random places as they walked by such as, "This is the stable," "This is the kitchen," etc... Alex had no problem with this. The sooner it ended the sooner she could get back to her room and away from all the inquisitive goblins. Several had already come up to her to say hello or introduce themselves. Most of those were goblin men seeking the prestiege of having a non-goblin bride. Apparently Alex didn't have to worry about meeting goblin men, they were taking care of that for her. Kayto simply stood to the side and watched Alex's apparent discomfort with amusement.

At one point they were outside, and Alex found herself looking up at the weird colored blob again. Seeing what she was looking at, Kayto said, "That's the lake."

"But how does it stay up?"

"Magic of course," said Kayto while rolling his eyes. Humans could be so stupid sometimes.

"Yes, but how does it work? When the lake gets full, does it overflow up there, or down here? Can only certain people do magic, or everyone? Do you have to use words or wave your hands? Do-"

At this Kayto cut her off, "There's another part of the kingdom I think you might like."

****Author's Note****

First off, thanks to my super special awesome (YuGiOh Abridged anyone?) reviewers Phantomrox87, BalletGirl98, speederina, and JayLah. Reviews really make my day, hence the super special awesome.

Next chapter is Heigh-Ho which will have Eresha finally, and you'll meet some new characters.

Let's see, I mentioned the poll, community, Happily, and Beta Reading... can't think of anything else. So read, enjoy, and review!


	9. Heigh Ho

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

**Heigh-Ho**

Despite Alex's pestering, Kayto refused to tell her where they were going. He was leading her away from the goblins and more into the valley. But first they had taken a short detour. After declaring that he was going to take her somewhere else, he then insisted that she go back to her room and put on actual shoes instead of flip flops she was currently wearing, not telling her why.

It was on the way back from her room that Alex met Eresha. Well, more like ran into. Alex was following Kayto down a hallway and when she turned around the corner she ran into a person. Kayto stepped to the side at the last minute letting Eresha run right into Alex. Later she would reflect that it had been on purpose.

Looking up, Alex saw a tall, beautiful, woman who was giving off an air of superiority, reminding Alex of Candace. Alex knew she shouldn't judge a person based on looks, but her experience was telling her this was a person who shouldn't be trusted. Eresha meanwhile saw an ugly human with a scowl on her face. "What," said Eresha slowly, "is_ that_ doing here?"

Alex was about to say something rude, but Kayto intervened. Kayto and Eresha weren't fond of each other either, but he figured he would probably be able to handle the situation better than Alex. Probably. "Can't say I'm surprised you haven't heard the news since you spend so much time in the library. This is Alex, Alice's sister. Alex this is Eresha, Inanna's sister."

Alice had filled Alex in on the whole Inanna/Candace/Alice debacle the night of their reunion. So she at least had an idea of who Eresha was.

Eresha raised an eyebrow at the news of who Alex was related to. "Well, I should have guess due to the family resemblance. You're just as drab as she is."

Alex's eyebrows furrowed, but she still managed to say sweetly, "Afraid I can't say the same about you seeing as how kind Inanna is, and well, how bitchy you seem."

Kayto choked back a laugh at this. Maybe Alex wasn't so bad after all. She managed to figure out Eresha in less than a minute. Eresha, however, was not pleased. She sent an intense glare back at Alex before scoffing, "Just like a human."

From there she turned her eyes to Kayto. Originally, Marak made Kayto show Eresha around in much the same way he had made Kayto show Alex around. Upon meeting each other, it was quite clear that they didn't like each other. Eresha viewed Kayto as a goblin who perversed his elf blood with his appearance. He didn't approve of her because he was the one who had watched how she manipulated Alice into almost killing herself. To goblins, all female life was sacred, and Kayto had actually been prepared to interfere even at the risk of his own bodily harm due to the seven stars spell. Luckily she had ran into the Candace girl, the attractive human othat he had spied on as well, and she had managed to talk Alice out of it. And despite telling Marak all of this, he had still allowed her into the kingdom.

Kayto and Eresha quietly played a game of who will blink first, until Eresha lost. Kayto smiled. Ignoring it she said, "I would love to stay and chat but I have other more important things to do besides waste my precious time on you." Then she walked away from them.

"She was lying," said Kayto after she left.

This time is was Alex's turn to roll her eyes at him. "I don't have magic, and I could have told you that."

* * *

After the Eresha incident they continued on their way eventually reaching some caves. "Are you going to show me a secret way out, because if so I need to go back and get my stuff."

Kayto replied, "I wish. No, instead I thought I would introduce to the people who would be able to answer all your questions. I have a good feeling you'll get along with them."

"Who?" asked Alex, her curiosity piqued.

"The dwarves."

"Wait, did you say dwarves? So dwarves exist as well as goblins and elves. Anything else I should know about? Vampires, werewolves, mermaids?"

"Don't be absurd. All those stories come from humans who misinterpreted a goblin they managed to see. I guess I should mention that demons exist as well, but I doubt you would ever meet one."

"Why?"

"It would involve you doing an ancient and complex summoning ritual and having you soul eventually devoured by it."

"That sounds like a pretty good reason. So tell me about the dwarves. Why do you think I would get along with them so well?"

"Well, originally goblins and elves lived in another part of the world. When the humans there became a bit too violent for the elves, an elf decided it was time for them to migrate. And since the goblins raid brides from the elves, they decided to follow. Eventually the elves settled here along with the goblins. The goblins found the dwarves who had already lived in the caves down here. With Marak Lionspaw's leadership, the dwarves proceeded to carve out the rest along with doing the lake spell. They're responsible for the structures, palace, jewel garden and more. And with your interest in the lake and structures I decided you might get along together. Normally the dwarves stick to themselves but occasionally they'll associate with others outside their species if their interests are similar enough. Oh look we're here."

* * *

'Here' meant a large cave that looked to be an office of some sort, with books, plans, and more spread out over numerous stone tables with little stone seats. Surrounding the plans were numerous little creatures, that Alex could only assume were the dwarves that Kayto had spoke of. Most came up a little past Alex's waist. Their hair varied from coal black tuffs, to rich earthy browns, and some even had some gray. Their ears were pointed like the elves, but not quite as elegant, giving them an almost comical appearance. As for their faces, they had the same two eyes, one nose and mouth as humans do, but their features were sharper, craggier, rocker. Alex felt like she was looking into a face of a mountain instead of the cute colorful dwarfs Disney had depicted. They had beady eyes aware of anything and everything, and sharp hooks for noses. Their hands were gnarly and rocky, but still nimble and quick. The only thing Disney seemed to get right was the hodge-podge collection of clothes that they were wearing in addition to the numerous bracelets, rocks, and rings.

Kayto approached what Alex could only assume to be the dwarf in charge due to his gray hair and golden specs that adorned his face. "Ahem," he said in English, clearing his throat when it seemed as if the dwarf was just going to ignore him.

The dwarf looked up at him, clearly annoyed at the interruption to his deep thoughts. "What," he replied in a deep, gravely, voice matching Kayto's English, "do you want?"

Judging by the expression displayed on Kayto's face, he was apparently not use to being addressed in such a way. "I have someone here who I think you would get along with. Grindstone, this is Alex, the newest resident of the kingdom. Alex, this is Grindstone, the closest thing the dwarves have to a king."

"Bah," said Grindstone as he turned his eyes upon Alex, "Kings are for races that are too dumb to get along together. Us dwarves know better to get involved in wars and trouble. Just give us our rocks and projects and we get along fine. What's the human doing here?"

Before Alex could respond to the 'human' part of the question, Kayto said something first. "Alex here has been asking all sort of questions about the lake and magic that I thought you might be better at answering than I."

Grindstone looked at Alex with intrigue written on his weathered face before replying, "We are not use to humans in these parts."

This time it was Alex's turn to speak before Kayto could. "I was curious as to the forces acting upon the lake to keep it up, how the lake responds to flooding, among other things." Then to clarify her interest, "I'm a civil engineer, or at least I was."

Taking this new information in, Grindstone then started to introduce Alex to the other dwarves. "This," he said pointing to the dwarf standing next to him on his left, who had been watching everything quietly, "is Aggregate, he can be a little coarse sometimes. This," he said indicating the dwarf on his right, who had also been watching, "is Bitum, and he can be a little hot. That," he said referring to a dwarf a couple feet away, studying a set of plans rather intently, "is Riprap. He's rather sharp. Next is," this time it was a dwarf with brown hair who was standing next to Riprap, "is Lathe. He might be a stick in the mud and wooden, but he's still good at taking orders. Over there," he said talking about a dwarf behind Alex, "is Pyrit, and can be quite the fooler. Finally there's Loam," he said about the goblin next to Pyrit. "He may be a dwarf, but he has quite the green thumb on him."

Done with the introductions, Alex finally let go of the laugh that she had been holding in the whole time. To Kayto's shock, Grindstone and the other dwarves joined in quite heartily. Dwarf humor, go figure. Normally when the dwarves would attempt jokes with the goblins, they would only be met with polite smiles or blank stares, not sure what to make of the joke. But here was a human who actually managed to understand what the dwarves had been talking about.

"You're the first non-dwarf to get that one," Grindstone said with approval in his voice. Unbeknownst to Alex, she had managed to pass some kind of secret test by the dwarves measuring her worth. "Welcome to the caves."

****Author's Note****

Big thanks to BalletGirl98 and speederina for reviews. It's always nice to hear what people think of my writing.

Next chapter is Hakuna Matata. Similar to how the song serves as a time transition for the Lion King, the chapter will do the same for After. Just instead of years, it will only be a couple months.

For this chapter, I realized that Alex would have a lot in common with the dwarves. Going through the books I couldn't find any descriptions or information on the dwarves other than the fact that they worked with the earth and goblin kings continually need to come up with projects for them. So I came up with my own, including the dwarf humor and having no king part. If I missed any descriptions or information that contradicts what I wrote, just let me know. I also thought it would be a nod to Disney by featuring seven of them.

Also, after realizing the lack of info. on dwarves I would like to see more fics including them. Especially a fic that features one as a king's Wife, instead of the usual human or elf.

Now for the dwarf humor part. Like Alex, I'm studying civil engineering, and came up with the dwarves names due to classes or things I learned from my internship this summer. Below are the definitions and explanations for the jokes. I know some include materials the dwarves might not be familiar with, but I figure they might read up on the humans and compare construction details, so please look past that.

On a side note, for any girls out there that are good at math and science, I highly encourage you to go into engineering. Girls are a minority in engineering, in fact, in a class of 30 there might be only 3 or 4 girls. This is good news when it comes to graduating and looking for jobs. Companies are always looking to hire minorities, and being a girl is a definite plus in the field. I'm proof that it's possible to love reading and writing, as well as math and science. I've always been torn between the areas but have found a way to balance them through writing fanfiction.

Definitions:

**Grindstone: **Sounded like a dwarf name and was the name of an area I worked at this summer.

**Aggregrate: **In this context it deals with material that you might see on the side of a highway for drainage. It's often a mixture of crushed rocks and gravel. Coarse is just a specific type of aggregate used, and also serves as a way to describe somebody. That's why when Grindstone says that Aggregate is 'coarse' Alex picks up on the double meaning while Kayto doesn't.

**Bitum: **Bitum comes from the term bituminous materials. Bituminous materials mean materials that contain bitumen, a dark-colored substance that is used in asphalt, which is used to pave roads. Hot just means that it's heated, and it typically seen when it comes to billing (at least in my experience). So when Grindstone says that Bitum can get rather hot, he means that he has a temper, but also is referring to the hot bituminous material part as well.

**Riprap: **Ever notice big, white, rocks next to creeks, rivers, bridges, or water just in general? That's what riprap is. It's there to absorb the impact of waves from water, and to slow down erosion on slopes that lead to waterways. Riprap is hard to walk on, and is very sharp. Grindstone is referring to Riprap being 'sharp' as in smart, but also to the material being sharp and hard as well.

**Lathe: **Don't know how true this is for international readers, but it's true for the American Midwest. Before construction begins on a highway, workers go out and place lathe, which rhythms with 'laugh'. A lathe is a wooden stake, with a bright neon ribbon tied around the top, and numbers written on the front facing the highway. They denote the stations along a highway and are usually placed every 250 feet. Stations are basically known points along a highway. They help an engineer determine where things are accurately located so they know where jobs might end, begin, or be able to calculate material needed for a job. Lathe might also be placed to denote where construction signs go before a job begins. 'Stick in the mud' is a way of saying somebody's no fun, but is the most basic definition for lathe.

**Pyrit: **This term is a bit easier to understand. Pyrit is taken from the word Pyrite, which means fool's gold, a type of mineral that can fool people into thinking it's gold due to the color. Hence, Grindstone warns Alex about Pyrit being quite the fooler, or joker.

**Loam: **Loam is a type of soil that is very good for farming. That's why Grindstone says that even though he's a dwarf that works with rocks, he has quite the green thumb, and can work with plants as well.

That's it for the definitions. Don't know if you'll find them funny as well, but I sorta do. Guess I just get dwarf humor. Moving on, don't forget to check out the August Writing Challenge in the forums. Submissions are due by August 31. My own submission is up and is called Happily.

I'm officially now a beta, so for those who might be interested check out my beta profile and PM me.

Don't forget to read, enjoy, and review!


	10. Hakuna Matata

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

**Hakuna Matata**

And so, the months passed. September soon turned into October, and then November. The elves moved from their summer camp to their winter camp, but Alex still saw her sister each full moon. She also found her niche with the dwarves and helping them with their projects especially their version of Mount Rushmore.

The subject had come up one day in September when Alex was explaining different projects humans had done such as the Hoover Dam, Panama Canal, the Pyramids, and Mount Rushmore. The dwarves were intrigued by the idea of carving pictures into rock and making a piece of art, something they had never done before. Up to that point they carved rock to make caves, not sculptures. However, they were having issues deciding what to carve. The dwarves didn't have many leaders like humans did, so faces were out of the question. Lathe suggested an animal but the others couldn't agree on what, while Loam suggested a stone forest for Inanna. So far Marak was staying out of and letting the dwarves bicker among themselves. The way he saw it, the longer it took for them to decide on the project the longer it would be before Marak would have to come up with another one.

Alex eventually came to understand that magic was just another force like gravity that could be used. The dwarves used magic to hold up the lake and counteract the gravity that would normally act upon the lake causing the water to fall. Their magic also let the water bowl down instead of up and overflowing the boundaries when the lake got full. Magic was also responsible for other things in the kingdom such as the water mirror that Alex had used earlier. It was also responsible for the rubber band spell at the windows preventing elves from committing suicide or a certain former king's Wife from dropping things on unsuspecting goblins below. Part of her wanted to see the real world applications of it to bridges, dams, and other structures but knew it was unlikely due to her stay in the kingdom.

She also continued talking to Finn every night who was fascinated even more than she was with the applications of magic, trying to get every detail possible out of her. Meanwhile he would fill her in about classes, their friends, and the world events he deemed important. Of course the world events that he deemed important weren't the same events Alex deemed important, but news was news.

To Alex's immense relief he was taking her absence better than she thought he would. The phone calls each night probably helped. Ever since she had gone a day without speaking to him, they had agreed on phone calls every twelve hours, with texts being acceptable as well. The extra project he had began working on as well helped. Alex had only been half way listening when he told her, her mind was on other things such as calculations for the dwarves plans. It was something having to do with a tree of some sort. Which didn't really make sense to Alex since Finn would rather be inside working on a project than outside. But whatever. Maybe he was expanding his horizons or something like that.

She also talked to her parents every once and a while assuring them everything was okay. She hadn't worked up the courage yet to tell them the truth. Alex also sent out letters periodically so Marak wouldn't be suspicious about Alex's lack of communication. They pretty much contained the same stuff as her phone calls. So far she hadn't found anything on Alice, but would continue looking.

Her visits with Alice once a month were welcomed and the girls would tell each other what was going on and just talk. Aggie and Inanna would join them leaving Marak and Nir on the otherside of the circle to talk about 'important stately matters' or so they said. Aggie insisted that they were too embarrassed to admit that they enjoyed the visits as well.

Alex's relationship with Kayto also progressed. After seeing how she dealt with Eresha, his respect for her increased. She actually managed to convince him to take her solar powered charger outside during the day when he was on duty. At first he hadn't seen the point, the magic interfered with her using it for her phone and other devices. At least that's what he assumed, and Alex didn't think telling him the truth would be the wisest thing to do. Instead she pointed out her phone's other abilities, playing music and showing photos from her life. After pointing out that the photos were the last images of her parents, friends, school, and everything she had ever known, he finally gave in not seeing any harm in it. He also began to slowly teach her Goblin and even Elvish in his spare time. In a way, he was her Finn substitute.

For starters they had a similar build. They also had the an air of aloft around them and a tendency to miss Alex's sarcastic comments. But that was where the similarities ended. Finn was shy and socially awkward whereas Kayto, she quickly discovered was well-known and liked by the goblins. He was also a born leader, and athletic, qualities that Finn lacked. But it was probably due to the few similarities between the two that Alex felt comfortable with him. He was the most normal looking goblin she had encountered so far, no feathers, or claws. Just blue skin, which Alex could deal with.

* * *

Besides teaching her Goblin and Elvish, Kayto was learning about humans from Alex. She explained that yes, there were rapists, murderers, and thieves but there were decent ones as well, that outnumbered the bad. One memorable conversation was the one about lying.

It had been a late October day, and Kayto wanted to know if Alex wanted to join him for dinner. Alex had been adjusting to the goblins, but that night she didn't feel like dealing with the stares, so she lied. She told Kayto that she was feeling like she was coming down with something, forgetting he could tell when she was lying.

"I had almost forgotten that you were a human," he scoffed.

Alex had been walking back to her room, but turned around at hearing the comment. "What are you talking about?"

"You lied. You're not sick, just rather not be with me. Humans can be so selfish."

Fuming, Alex tried to calm herself down. It wasn't Kayto's fault she lied, it was her own stupidity. "Yes, humans lie for selfish reasons, but sometimes they do it for selfless ones."

"Like what?" demanded Kayto.

"Like wanting to spare a friend's feelings instead of admitting that they are still uneasy with goblins," responded Alex bluntly.

"Then why didn't you just say so? That you rather be in your room then deal with goblins."

"Because _you're_ a goblin, and I thought you might think I meant you with the statement. Because I thought it would be easier to simply lie than to explain it."

Kayto smirked, "And see where lying got you, it's still a selfish habit. You were too lazy to tell me the truth so you lied."

"Fine then," Alex admitted, "it was selfish. But I still think people can lie for selfless reasons. For example, what if you were married, and your wife puts on a hideous dress that makes her look ugly, but asks for your opinion. How would you respond?"

"I would tell her," began Kayto as he stepped forward, closer to Alex so they were barely six inches from each other, "that she is far more beautiful than the dress, and should wear something that complements her appearance."

Alex's cheeks turned scarlet in part due to the blush of embarrassment from being unsure whether or not Kayto was flirting with her, and also due to the annoyance she felt that Kayto had managed to insult and complement her at the same time. However, she still had one last example that she doubted even Kayto could refute. "Your answer was good, but there's another example that I don't think you can worm your way out of." Kayto's eyes lit up, ready for the challenge. "Would it be easier to tell one's parents that their youngest daughter married an elf, and oldest is going to have to marry a goblin, both never to be seen again, or to tell them that their youngest daughter disappeared without a trace, but is probably happy, while the oldest eloped with a guy and decided to stay in England."

Kayto took a while trying to figure it out. "I suppose lying would be better," he finally conceded. "The parents might not believe in elves and goblins, and if they did they might raise a fuss that could endanger both races."

Alex walked away in triumph, satisfied that she had managed to outwit Kayto, and get him to admit that lying wasn't always such a horrible, human thing to do. And the heat on her face from being so close to Kayto might have had something to with it as well. Not that she would admit it. Out loud at least.

* * *

Marak had noticed that Alex preferred Kayto's company over other goblins which he was pleased by. At least one of the bride-to-be's were settling into his kingdom. So far Eresha just kept spending time in the library, avoiding goblins at all costs. By this point she still had six months left but he wasn't too concerned. She was an elf after all, and usually elves had a harder time adjusting than humans. He would just keep an eye on her and step in as the last month got closer and if she still showed no signs of interest in marrying.

There was romance in the air for another couple as well. As it turned out all of Aggie's meetings had been with Babar's father, Paris. Just as Aggie had contributed to Babar's name, so did Colette, the king's Wife before her,contribute to Babar's father's name. Originally the meetings had started as a means to help Paris get over his wife's, Lara's, death. Aggie knew what it was like to lose a spouse and had been close to Lara as well. But in their grief they had gradually grown closer together. Close enough to want to marry.

When Marak found out he was furious. "I thought you loved my father, but apparently I was wrong!"

Aggie just looked at her son like he was five. "And apparently I was wrong about you being intelligent. Marak, I loved your father. But he's gone now, and I still have a long life to live, and I don't want to live it alone."

"But you're not alone! There's me, and Inanna, and you even consider Nir as a son."

Aggie simply sighed. Sometimes when Marak got like this, he could be a bit thick. "Dearie, that wasn't the type of loneliness I was referring to."

Marak's face was scrunched in confusion until it suddenly widened in understanding. "But... but..." he stuttered, "you're a king's Wife!"

"No, I _was_ a king's Wife, I'm not anymore. Inanna is," Aggie clarified.

Determined, Marak responded, "Well I won't allow it. I'll simply forbid Paris from doing so as his king." Satisfied with this conclusion Marak grinned with his arms crossed in front of his chest, until he saw his mother's expression.

She said slowly, in order for her words to sink in, "You may be Paris's king, but I am your mother. If I have to I will treat you like a child, and I will do so in front of your wife."

At this Inanna's head bobbed up. She had finally gotten Kate's chronicles back from Eresha and was busy reading, or at least she had been. Marak would sometimes forget he couldn't command his mother around like the rest of his subjects and she would have to forcefully remind him of this. The conversations or arguments that resulted were always the highlight of Inanna's day. The way they bantered back and forth was amusing to her. Especially when Marak would lose his cool and Aggie would have to calmly talk some sense back into him. The interesting part was that so far Marak had never acted like with Inanna, just his mother. Inanna wondered what her relationship with her mother would have been like if she actually had lived. She hoped her mother would be something like Aggie. Kind, motherly, but still strong and forceful.

Aggie's words must have finally sunk because he was wearing a pout on his face. "Fine, but don't expect me to call him father, or Babar brother."

"Whatever you want dear. You are the king after all," was Aggie's only response.

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank speederina and Phantomrox87 for reviews. I LOVE reviews and will respond to them, sometimes even giving hints about future events.

So this chapter was more of a transitional type. Next chapter is when things really pick up. Be Prepared is the title, and it will begin with a marriage (that you found out about in this chapter. Good luck on figuring out the second), will feature a special announcement in the middle, which some of you might guess at, and will conclude with the first death (good luck on figuring out the who and how). After that, things will really take off due to aftermath of the murder.

I know the past couple chapter have been slow, but appreciate it. The next couple will feature a lot of cliff hangers.

So, read, enjoy, and review!


	11. Be Prepared

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

**Be Prepared**

Aggie and Paris's wedding was a small one. It was just them, along with their children's family's and some extras. Extras such as Alex and Kayto, since they were still close friends with Aggie.

The wedding happened the third week of November with Marak, grudgingly performing the ceremony. Alex had never seen a goblin's marriage ceremony before, and was intrigued by the idea of the hairs becoming a rash if the person cheated. She wondered if there would be as many affairs if humans had to do the same. It was only when she noticed that Kayto kept sneaking side-ways glances at her, did Alex realize that the next goblin wedding she would be witnessing would probably be her own. Although she had adjusted to living with goblins, she was still uneasy with the notion of marrying one. Although, the thought of marrying somebody she liked made it better.

After the ceremony everybody departed going their own ways. Aggie and Paris went to their new rooms together, Marak stayed to talk with Kayto and Babar, Inanna left to discuss something with her sister, and Alex was left walking with Kayta who kept complimenting her appearance in the new dress. Kayta also brought up Kayto, showing her approval of the match between the two. Alex tried to skillfully avoid talking about him like _that_, and simply stuck to saying they were friends at the moment. Kayta just looked at her doubtfully, and before she could prod Alex more, Alex was seeking refuge in her room.

Seeking refuge in her room was an old habit, that was slowly dying. By this point the sight of goblins and their stares no longer bothered her so much. She had even made friends with some of them. Kayta and her husband Babar were among her new friends, despite the circumstances of how Babar and Alex first met. After hearing Alex's side of things, he had forgiven her rather quickly having inherited his father's gentle nature, while it had taken Kayta longer to forgive her for all the worry Alex had caused.

But after listening to Kayto's advice to allow her to make Alex some dresses and new outfits, Kayta finally did forgive her. Alex was never a dress type girl, but even she had to admit that the dresses Kayta made fit well and felt comfortable. In fact she wearing a blue one that night. Only because Aggie had convinced her it would be more appropriate than her other outfits. Plus, Aggie had guilted her by mentioning that Kayta would be there and would be hurt that Alex hadn't worn any of her new dresses.

* * *

A while later, Alex joined the others for the celebration feast that night. Weddings were always an occasion to celebrate for the goblins, and despite the idea that a much beloved former king's Wife finding happiness with another husband was new, the goblins were still happy to show their support.

Alex soon found herself seated next to Kayto, Babar, Kayta, Aggie, Paris and Marak. That night's dinner was roasted lamb with other delicacies in order to celebrate the wedding. Alex had picked up the habit of eating with chopsticks and was doing so when to her surprise, Eresha sat down next to her, and Inanna joined Marak.

Ever since the run-in a couple months ago Alex and Eresha avoided each other like the plague. The few times they saw each other they simply glared at one another or insulted each other before parting ways. This was why Alex was surprised when Eresha choose to sit down next to her, especially when there were other spots opened. Not to mention Eresha hardly ever ate in the dining hall with the goblins. Instead, she would flirt with one of the kitchen workers, Lefou, a goblin that bared a heavy resemblance to a beaver with his big buck teeth and fur, who would give her food whenever she asked.

Kayto was the first to speak. "What are you doing here?" he askesd with contempt in his voice.

"I'm here for the big announcement of course," Eresha replied cheerfully, which was odd behavior for her.

"What big announcement?" chimed Alex.

"The big announcement I'm about to make," answered Marak, eavesdropping on the conversation as usual. He then proceeded to stand up and cleared his voice. "I would first like to congratulate my mother and Paris on their second marriage. I would also like to remind Paris as his king, that if he makes my mother unhappy in any way-"

"Marak," said Aggie, in a warning tone.

"Fine. I have no doubts that he'll do anything but make you happy, but I'm still allowed to threaten." At this the goblins chuckled quietly among themselves. "Now if I can continue, I have an important announcement to make." Inanna tugged at his sleeve and Marak said, "Correction, we have an important announcement to make."

Inanna then stood up to join her husband and said, "In June, I'm going to have the heir." She had barely finished the sentence before a roar went up among the goblins. Inanna had barely been a king's Wife for six months, and she was already expecting the heir. This meant that she had adjusted to the kingdom very quickly and the goblins couldn't have been more pleased. Then to top it off, Marak kissed his wife in front of them all, which made the noise even louder. The kitchen staff excited themselves, realized that they had better prepare more food. It was clear that the celebrations would last longer into the night than they had originally guessed.

* * *

Alex's head felt as if it was exploding. In fact, she was pretty sure she could hear the explosions happening. THUMP. THUMP. She slowly opened her eyes and it dawned on her that the thumping noise wasn't her head exploding, although it certainly felt like it, but was instead, somebody pounding at her door. She had barely made this realization before light filled the room along with a very angry looking Kayto and several of the king's guards.

"What's going on?" she mumbled, her tongue stiff.

The stare he was giving her was more venomous than the one he had given her during the Babar incident. "I should ask the same of you. I... we... trusted you."

"Kayto," said Babar, "Look at this." He was holding up Alex's knife in one hand and the taser in the other. To her horror the knife was covered in blood.

It was then an angry looking Marak entered the room with red tinged scales, a very rare sight. Taking in the evidence in Babar's hand he said, "So she did do it. Take her to the prison immediately."

Confused, she turned to Kayto. "Did what?"

He laughed at her. "To think that I actually thought you humans could change. That perhaps there were decent caring people among your kind, and that you might actually like..." his voice trailed off at the thought before continuing, "But I was wrong. You're all the same, greedy, vicious creatures who hurt the innocent for no reason other than pure selfishness."

"Did what?" Alex repeated, a lump rising in her throat, afraid of what she would hear next.

"For killing Lefou, and almost killing my wife and heir, of course," Marak spat at her. "What else did you think you did?"

****Author's Note****

I would like to thank speederina, JayLah, and Connysilvia for reviews. Reviews are nice to get, and I'm looking forward to reactions from this chapter.

Dun dun dun... told you things would start getting exciting. And the chapter name Be Prepared should have indicated something was about to happen.

Unfortunately, the cliff hanger won't be resolved/explained next chapter. Instead, Finn will finally get his own chapter in, If I Didn't Have You. It's really sweet, and includes how Finn became friends with Alex, along with a little surprise at the end.

By this point After is officially half way over. But there's still a bit to go before it ends. One more wedding, and two more deaths. Don't forget, read, enjoy and review!


	12. If I Didn't Have You

I do not own the rights to the song or Hollow Kingdom. Or Finding Nemo. Or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

**If I Didn't Have You**

Finn paced back and forth across his room. Actually, it wasn't much of a room since it was a college dorm, but it still counted since it had four walls and a door. It had been over twenty-four hours since he had last heard from Alex. She had missed her late night call. Ten at night for her, and four in the afternoon for him. Thinking perhaps she got detained and would wait to call him during her day call, he impatiently waited. And waited. Noon her time and six in the morning his came and went with no word from her.

The last time she had missed a call she had at least texted, but now nothing. It was then she had agreed to the two calls a day thing, and if she ever missed a call, he was allowed to contact the National Guard. It was upon reflection that he realized that she was joking. After all, how could one call the armed forces on a bunch of mythical beings?

That didn't stop him from trying. After finally locating a number he was firmly by an angry general, that goblins and elves in another country was none of their concern, and to stop with the pranks.

* * *

The truth was, Alex wasn't just his best friend, but his first friend. Human, that is. As a child, Finn had always been odd. Tall, skinny, a nerd, and shy. All a bad combination. He was always the weirdo, the one everybody ignored in school. Not that he cared. He had Nemo, and didn't need anybody else. Nemo had been his best friend since he twelve. Despite being a goldfish, with a good diet, regular cleaning of his tank, and Finn's beneficial chatter (studies had shown that it worked for plants so why not goldfish as well) Finn had managed to keep Nemo alive for six long years. That was until October of his freshman year in college.

It had been a Friday night, on "unofficial Halloween" weekend. Since the town's bars were closed the actual Halloween weekend to discourage partying and wild behavior, the students partied the week before. Well, most of the students partied. Finn didn't. Instead he was in his room playing Portal, when he saw something out of the corner of his eye that made him stop. Nemo was floating on the top of his fishbowl instead of normally swimming happily around.

Finn rushed over with cries of, "No, no, you're just sleeping, you can't be dead!" But Nemo wasn't sleeping, he wasn't even moving. Distraught, Finn gently picked him up and placed him on a paper towel. After tearing his room apart for an hour he realized, he had nothing to bury Nemo in.

He soon decided to go door to door. Most people were out for unofficial Halloween, while others simply ignored him. "I know you're there! I see your shadow under the door and can hear music!" He said this more often than he would have liked, and was on the verge of giving up on humanity all together when the next door he knocked on actually opened. It revealed a girl about five feet, five inches. She had brown frizzy hair pulled back into a pony tail that was currently hanging over her left shoulder. Finn could see a pencil right above her left ear with another one sticking up in back out of her hair.

She also looked very annoyed. "Can I help you?"

Remembering what he had come there for he asked, "Why yes. I was wondering if you had a container I could use."

"For what?"

Finn slowly unwrapped the towel in his hand. At the sight, she took a step back and exclaimed, "Why is there a dead fish in your hand?"

"What else am I suppose to do with him?"

"Flush him down a toilet? All toilets lead to the ocean, you know," she suggested.

"All toilets lead to the ocean? I'm shocked at you, you're a civil engineer and should know better than that. Toilets lead to waste-water treatment plants, and the waste is then treated with chemicals which is then left to sit for weeks until it can be used as fertilizer on some farmer's fields. I am not about to have my best friend end up as manure. Would you?"

The girl blinked at him before finally saying, "How did you know my major?"

"I memorized the names, ages, majors, and criminal background of everybody in the building, had to make sure there were no crazies. You're name is Alexandra Thompson, although you prefer Alex, you will turn nineteen in two weeks, are majoring in civil engineering, and have no criminal record to speak of. Which is quite impressive. You'd be amazed at the number of people who have offenses in this building."

"That's not creepy at all... so what did you come here for again?"

"A box to bury Nemo in."

She started snickering, "You named him Nemo? As in _Finding Nemo_?"

"Don't be absurd. _Finding Nemo_ was released in 2003. I got Nemo in 2002. He is named after Captain Nemo from Jule Verne's, _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_. In fact, the same Captain Nemo is who the little clownfish you're so fond of, is named after."

"Uh huh..."

Finn knew that tone, it was the 'I'm weirded out by you and am going to slam the door in your face' tone. "Please..." he cried, his voice full of desperation. "Please..."

* * *

Finn was right, Alex had been about to slam the door on him. Originally she had been studying only to hear a knock on her door. She waited, and it didn't sound like a bunch of loud drunks were outside the thin walls. Looking through the peep hole she saw what's his name. He sat behind her in Calculus I and was always asking questions, interrupting class, much to her annoyance.

On the first day, the few girls in the class were all enamored by him. Tall, gorgeous blond locks of hair reminiscent of the smart guy on Criminal Minds, big sky blue eyes, they all sighed over him. Even a small part of Alex was attracted to him. Until he opened his mouth and started talking. The picture perfect image was then ruined. He was constantly questioning teachers, pointing out their mistakes, and just an all around annoyance. Which was why Alex was surprised to see him knocking on her door on a Friday night of all things.

The fact that he was holding a fish didn't help things. Not to mention knowing her name, information, and doing a background check on her just screamed creeper. But when he begged her with desperation in his voice, Alex started to cave. That voice, the helpless look on his face all reminded her of Alice. Alice her sister, who she had left home after weeks of agonizing over her decision of schools. What's his name may be confident and cocky in class, but underneath it he had a childlike quality. He had to if he cared so much for some little goldfish. Alex had went through twelve when she was younger, not even bothering to name them. Alice did however, and had cried as their mother flushed the dead ones down the toilet.

It was due to this memory, among others, that Alex found herself outside on a Friday night at a funeral for a fish. It was October, so the ground had started to harden and it had taken both of them digging with plastic cups in the ground to finally create a small hole. Alex had a small pencil case with a broken clasp that she had been meaning to throw out which served as the casket.

After placing it in the ground, Finn began the service. "We are gathered here today to honor a cherished and beloved friend, Nemo the goldfish. He was loyal, and strong. He lived for six long years, far past an average goldfish's prime. He survived a three hour move to college and will be sorely missed." He then placed a flower he had found nearby on the small mound of dirt.

He then gestured to Alex to say a few words. "Um..." she began, unsure of what to say about a goldfish she didn't even know. "I hardly knew you, but you must have been a great fish to put up with... I'm sorry, but what's your name?"

"Why, Eugene. I sit right behind you in Calculus I. I suppose we all can't be bothered to learn our classmates names."

"Did you get beat up in school a lot?" asked Alex.

Finn answered, "Yes. Why?"

"Sorry, but Eugene isn't doing it for me. I can't take you seriously with that name. What's your middle name?"

"Lawrence."

"Last?"

"Finnegan."

"Eugene Lawrence Finnegan. You parents must have wanted to doom you. What about Finn? It's short, sweet, and I might be able to take you seriously."

"A nickname? I've never had a nickname before," he cried in delight, "Nicknames are often used between friends. Does that mean I'm your friend now?"

"I suppose. For the record, I go by Alex."

And so that night, Eugene Lawrence Finnegan lost his best friend, but also gained a new one. Along with a nickname.

* * *

After that night, they had grown close. Alex introduced Finn to her own group of friends who put up with his eccentricities since they had their own. And although he had grown close to them, he was far closer to Alex. She was his confidante, his best friend. He went to her when he was sick, worried, stressed, and she could always calm him down. He introduced her to the stars, comics, anime, and she introduced him to new people, roller blading, the outdoors, and new foods that he had never tried. Finn didn't know what he'd do without her.

"Hey," said a voice from behind him. "Is everything okay?"

"No," he said once he saw who it was. "Nothing's okay Candace. How can everything be okay when Alex is gone?"

****Author's Note****

Thanks for all the positive feedback from the last chapter! If I had known killing a character off was what it took to get so much I would have done it earlier. Just joking or course.

I would like to thank Phantomrox87, speederina, JayLah, DDD, and very sad girl for reviews. They're the most reviews I have received for one chapter in a long time, so a major thanks!

The story of how Alex and Finn was one of the first things to pop in my mind, so I hope everybody enjoyed it. I also hoped that everybody enjoyed the surprise at the end with Candace. Originally she wasn't going to be in After until one of my friends was talking about how Candace didn't seem to get what she deserved, so I brought her back, which worked out nicely for the plot.

Next chapter will be getting back to Alex, Marak, and Inanna in When You Wish Upon A Star. What happened exactly to Inanna and Lefou will be revealed, as well as what's happened to Alex.

Don't forget to read, enjoy, and review!


	13. When You Wish Upon A Star

I do not own the rights to the song or Hollow Kingdom.

**When You Wish Upon A Star**

Alex had never been the damsel in distress type. When she was younger and played with Alice, she was always the white knight to Alice's princess. Alice had found out quickly that Alex didn't play the princess part well.

"I don't get it," Alex would complain, "why doesn't she just run away from her stepmother and sisters? It's not like there's any reason to stay." Or, "If she has all that hair why doesn't she just use it to climb down?" Alice indeed, quickly learned that Alex did not play princess well.

So being locked in a prison permanently with no real idea why or hope for escape did not sit well with Alex. After Marak's guards dragged her out of bed, they then put chains on her hands and feet and dragged to the prison where she had first stayed. Goblins lined the passageway along the way, staring at her. Their stares were not the welcoming, curious kind that had greeted her a couple months ago. Instead they were cold, judging, and full of hate. Several goblins she passed spat at her and hissed, even Kayta.

The dwarves had even come out to watch as she was dragged away. Their eyes spoke of sorrow for their new friend, and Alex could have sworn that she saw a tear in Grindstone's eye as she passed him. All were silent however.

At one point she passed Aggie who was the worst. She whispered quietly, "I'm glad that the revenge Marak has in store for you is much worse than simply marrying a goblin." The words hurt. Aggie was like a second grandmother to Alex, so having her think the worst of Alex cut like a knife to her heart. It was worse than Kayto's or Kayta's reactions.

While being dragged she stumbled a couple times. Her guards didn't seem to care or notice, they just continued to drag her to the prison. Upon reaching their destination, Marak opened the door and Kayto threw her in there so hard she landed on the floor. From there they proceeded to interrogate her. Asking her about what she did last night, how did the knife get blood on it, why she would try to kill Inanna and more. All the questions made her already aching head hurt worse. When her only response was that she didn't remember, Marak and Kayto seemed to get even more agitated. Eventually Babar stepped in and suggested to give Alex some time to reflect so her memory of last night's events might come back.

That was how she found herself in the very prison she had spent her first night in the goblin kingdom in, still wearing the dress from last night. Somehow despite being slept in, dragged, spat on, and dirtied, it still looked as good as it did the night before due to Kayta's spells. As she sat on the cold, hard floor she realized the precarious situation she was in. She was being accused of murder and attempted murder. The weapons were found in her room. She had no idea of what happened last night. And there wasn't a doubt in her mind that Marak would see to it she died, after being tortured no less. Goblins did love their revenge after all.

The only person who could come to her rescue was Finn, which was very unlikely. By now he was probably freaking out that she hadn't called, but he couldn't do anything about it. It wasn't like he could call the National Guard and tell them she had been kidnapped by goblins. Well, he could, but they would just laugh at him. With his fear of flying he couldn't even come over and investigate. No, she was alone in this. It was time to prove those stories that Alice was so fond of wrong. That the damsel in distress didn't need a white knight to rescue her, she could rescue herself.

Alice! That was it! Surely Alice could Nir to intervene and persuade Marak that Alex was innocent. Then again, Alice and Nir were with the elves at the winter camp. No doubt Marak would exact his revenge on her as soon as possible before Nir could stage a rescue. If he would. She was fairly sure that while Nir was fond of her, he was not fond enough to start another elf harrowing with the goblins because of her. Once again she was on her own.

_Think, Alex, think. What happened last night?_ Slowly, her murky memory began to clear. She had gone to Aggie's wedding, she remembered that because she had worn Kayta's dress that she was wearing now. Then there was the dinner. Marak and Inanna had announced they were expecting the heir. After that nothing. _Think, Alex, even the smallest detail can be the biggest clue_. There was one unusual thing though, about last night, she suddenly remembered. Eresha had sat down next to her.

_But that's not that big of a deal, though, is it?_ But... she couldn't remember anything after Eresha sat down, except the announcement. _How did I get back to my room? Did I even call Finn? I mean, it's almost as if..._ a light bulb went on in Alex's head. If she was a cartoon she was pretty sure there would have been a dinging sound, and if she looked up there would be a glowing light bulb above her head.

She had been drugged. The fact that she couldn't remember anything from last night, that her head had throbbed like a marching band was playing in it, that her tongue had been so stiff and heavy when she spoke in the morning. She had been drugged. And there was no doubt in Alex's mind of who it was. Eresha. It was the true reason that she had sat down next to Alex.

With that revelation, others began to come to light. A dim memory of her excusing herself and saying she was tired. Of not making it to the room without collapsing on the floor, only to look up and see Eresha there to help her. _That's it_, she thought. _Eresha drugged me and walked me back to my room. It was how she got the weapons._

There was one thing nagging Alex though. Why would Eresha try to kill her own sister?

* * *

Marak sat at Inanna's bed side, holding her left hand gently. When the king's Wife ceremony revealed that Inanna would die before Marak, he had hoped that there was no need for concern. But now... he wasn't so sure. When Nir's father had died, Marak had thought his mother was a fool for wasting away for him. Marak's own mother hadn't wasted away for his father. But while gazing at Inanna's ghost-like face he understood. He understood how the thought of losing a love one was so great, that the only comfort was death. Now Inanna was hovering between life and death. Marak had been able to heal her wounds but not before she lost a significant amount of blood.

Charm's head lifted out of Inanna's skin and said, "I have guarded one hundred and seventy-two King's Wives and only two have been closer to death."

"And what happened to those two?" Marak asked, grudgingly.

"They died." Marak just put his head into his remaining free hand.

He had been elated when he married Inanna. The first goblin king to secure an elf bride in over a hundred and fifty years. It was certainly an honor he was proud of, especially since she had volunteered for it no less. He could count on one hand the number of elf brides who married willingly.

Then he had gotten to know her. Her likes, dislikes. And slowly he began to fall in love with her, which every goblin king hoped for in a bride, but not all achieved. Especially with an elf. When she had told him about the heir, he was ecstatic. It showed how quickly she had settled into the kingdom and how happy she was. Another rare feat for a goblin king. To have his elf wife expecting the heir in less than a year. One more thing to add to the accomplishment's during his reign.

She had told him that morning, before Aggie's wedding, hoping to calm his nerves about his mother's new marriage. It worked. They spent the rest of the time discussing the heir. What he might look like, getting Kayta to make cute baby clothes, different ideas for tutors, and whether or not to have a nurse maid.

That night he had announced it to the roar of his goblin subjects. He couldn't resist sending an official letter to Nir with the news. The temptation to rub it in his face that Inanna was expecting his heir before Alice was too much. He had just handed it to his messenger when he saw something out of the corner of his eye that gave him a start. Charm.

"I have just bitten a goblin," Charm told him, pleased with itself for protecting the king's Wife. "He lies in another room awaiting the King's Judgement."

Following Charm, he wondered what unlucky goblin it was this time. His mother had a tendency to get goblins bit all the time during her time as the king's Wife, along with herself. She was always taking risks or burning stuff down with her handiwork. One of her favorite games had been suggesting ways that Charm couldn't protect. A nuclear bomb, an asteroid from space that would wipe out the earth. In those cases Charm would point out the kingdom's magic would protect her. But then Aggie would counter that she may be protected, but what about the future wives? What if the rest of the human race was wiped out and the kings ran out of elves and dwarves? Charm was still working on an answer to this.

Perhaps Aggie had given some suggestions to Inanna. That had to be it. No goblin would dare harm her really. Fear of Charm was one reason, but the goblins adored Inanna. Her soft spoken way, kind smile, interest in their lives. There was no real reason to worry. But Marak was wrong. For the sight that greeted him was a perfect reason to worry.

It was in Inanna's personal study that Charm had led him. It was next to his and was the perfect spot for the books she was currently reading, doing research on, or writing her own chronicle. Originally it had been his mother's but she soon let Inanna use it instead. The first thing Marak noticed was Lefou, one of the kitchen chefs laying on the floor with his throat slit. Next to him was a goblet that had spilled it's contents on the floor, leaving a big dark puddle. Leaning down, Marak caught a whiff of poison. This had been the danger Charm had detected.

"Here is the goblin, but I see somebody has else had judged him," it said disappointed. Then, it said, "Somebody has harmed my Wife," and zipped to the other corner of the room. The sight there was far worse. Inanna was laying on the floor with a pool of dark blood covering her stomach along with floor. From that point the rest of the time was a blur. Marak had set about healing her while Charm babbled on about statistics that Marak didn't care to listen to. The one fact he concentrated on was that Inanna would be dead if it hadn't been for the heir's magic keeping her alive.

The next hour was a flurry of activity. Marak carefully brought Inanna to his bedroom. He summoned his guards and demanded an explanation and investigation. Kayto was the one who noticed strange marks on Inanna's neck, the ones that matched Babar's from his encounter with Alex. Kayto then lead the way to Alex's room and was the one who found her knife covered in Lefou's blood and the taser that had rendered Inanna unconsicous. Otherwise she would have used her magic to protect herself. Leave it to a human to commit such a vile act. Inanna probably had no idea what happened until too late.

And then Alex claimed to have no memory of the incident. His magic told him she was telling the truth. After leaving her in the prison he had then discussed different theories with Kayto and Babar. One that they all agreed on was that it was possible Alex was blocking the memory herself. Either due to the trauma of the incident or perhaps the fear of revenge from Marak.

"But I don't get," said Kayto, "She seemed to be settling in. Why would she attack Inanna?"

"Isn't it obvious?" said a voice from behind them. Turning all three saw Eresha standing in the doorway. "Ana was the reason her sister went missing. She's probably been planning this for a while, letting us all think she was adjusting well. Humans are tricky like that."

* * *

"Dear," Marak jumped at the voice, he had been so en-rapt with his thoughts he didn't notice his mother entering the room. She sat down next to him on the bed. "I'm sorry for what happened. You know how much I care for Inanna."

"You're not the one who should be sorry," was his reply. "That girl is the one. And she will, once I'm done with her."

Aggie sighed. "Alex was such a sweet thing. I still can't believe she would harm Inanna."

"Eresha had a point. Inanna was the cause for Alice's disappearance. You saw what she did to Babar, who knows what she's capable of."

"I know," Aggie agreed. "I just wished we had more evidence."

"Why don't you look in her room? Kayto and Babar couldn't find anything suspicious but you might since you're a human and you know how they think."

"Thanks, love," Aggie replied dryly. "I think I'll go do just that. Let me know when she wakes up."

Marak nodded his head. _When_ he reminded himself, _not if_.

* * *

Aggie shook her head on the way to Alex's room. She still couldn't believe Alex had hurt Inanna. Alex had shown no signs of anger or resentment toward her. Instead she had grown close to Kayto and Aggie had high hopes for those two. They could have been her own children after all. Then again perhaps Aggie had grown to use living among the goblins and forgot how mean spirited humans could really be.

Reaching Alex's room, the door was slightly off it's hinges after being thrown open that morning by the guards. The place had already been searched, but Marak was right. Aggie did have an advantage over the guards. She wasn't just a human, but a woman as well. Remembering her hiding spots growing up, she searched Alex's underwear and bra drawers, something the embarrassed guards barely touched. It was there she found something interesting that they missed.

It was a small rectangular thing. A phone, she realized, but much smaller and more modern than what Aggie was use to. _My, how things have changed_, she thought. Then it started to vibrate in her hand and the screen lit up. Pressing the recieve button on the screen, she then held it up to her ear. "Finally!" a voice said on the other end. "I was starting to worry. See Candace, I told you Alex was fine." There was a snort in the background.

"Who is this?" asked Aggie.

The reply was, "You're not Alex."

****Author's Note****

Thanks goes to Phantomrox87, speederina, blabla and JayLah for reviews. Don't know how many times I have to say it, but reviews are always appreciated, and I will respond to signed ones.

Next chapter is one that I've been looking forward to for a while, and talked about in Ever. It's Eresha's chapter, the longest of After at over 3,700 words. It has everything that's happened in both stories, and even stuff that happened before that was hinted at. It includes everything from her view point and hopefully explains why she acts the way she does. It's called, When She Loved Me, and I'm really looking forward to reactions to whether or not people think it makes sense for Eresha's character, and adds to her.

For those curious, according to the first book, Kate was the 168th wife that Charm guarded. So Arianna was 169, Colette from the short story was 170, Aggie was 171, and Inanna is 172.

Also wanted to mention, just two more days for August Writing Challenge submissions. So if you have any last minute entries, get them in!

Remember, read, enjoy, and review!


	14. When She Loved Me

I do not own the rights to the song or Hollow Kingdom.

**When She Loved Me**

She watched her mother die. She watched as with each night, a little bit of life faded away from her weak body. Her mother had always been somewhat frail, and having two children so close together had done her in. With her youngest child, it had taken nearly all of Nir's magic to save her life while giving birth. He had also used his magic to postpone her mother's inevitable death. Pushing the impending deadline back a couple more years, to give her some more time. "There's nothing more I can do," he had told her father who started to sob at the news.

Unable to stand watching his beloved wife waste away before his eyes, he left it to Eresha to look after her dying mother and young sister. She spoon fed her stew each night, rubbed her feet, brushed her hair. Her mother used what little strength she had left to spend her remaining time with her young daughters. She sang them songs and read to them. Until she died that is.

It had been at the winter camp. Inanna had woken Eresha up with cries of "Mama, mama." Eresha saw that Inanna was sobbing while shaking their mother with no response. They had a small quiet funeral. The elves knew it was a long time coming, and didn't like spending much time on sadness. Their father had even made it back in time for the funeral. He left right after to go on another hunting trip.

From that point on Eresha cared for her sister. She gave her food, braided her hair, rubbed her feet down each night. The last time their father left Inanna had started to cry. It was that night that the sisters promised to stay together forever, nobody would ever come between them.

The other elves took notice of their father's absence and urged the girls to move in to one of their tents. Eresha refused. Inanna was her responsibility, nobody else's. Besides, they had promised to stay together. Soon odd things started happening in the camp. Accidents, mishaps. Things that could be explained away, but the increased occurrences couldn't be denied. Eventually Eresha was summoned to Nir's tent.

By this point she was eight, and Inanna was seven. Eresha had never been inside Nir's office and was greeted by him, his wife, Edi, who she knew from school, and their son, Aganir Suen. Seeing all three of them up close and in person was a bit overwhelming for Eresha. Sure she was a lord's daughter, but she had never really seen Nir so close. The closest she ever gotten was all those years when he first visted mama, and that didn't count since she could barely remember it.

"Eresha," he began, "I have some interesting reports concerning you and your sister. Would you care to explain?"

So that's what he wanted. Those busy bodied elves had reported their concerns to him. "Papa goes away a lot, leaving me to care for Ana," she replied.

"I'm well aware of your father's numerous trips. How he deals with his grief is his own affair. However, two young girls left alone with nobody to care for them is mine."

"I've been taking care of Ana just fine!" insisted, Eresha, with her fists clenched angrily at her sides. She now had a inkling of where this conversation was heading, and she wasn't liking the direction.

"You're a child taking care of a child," Nir pointed out. "Sula and Elysum have volunteered to take you in, while Lalia and Tibor have agreed to take your sister."

At these words, Eresha's bottom lip began to quiver and tears started spilling from her eyes. "No," she sobbed, "I'll do anything. Please, just don't separate me from Ana. She's all I got."

Edi put a hand on Nir's shoulder. "Perhaps there is a way for the girls to be together."

"Don't be absurd Edi. Sula and Elysum along with Lalia and Tibor have their own families to look after. One more child will be a handful, but two? That's too much to ask of them," replied Nir.

Edi gave her husband a stern look. "I wasn't talking about having them live together with another family." Eresha's head shot up at these words. Maybe there was a way for her and Ana to be together after all. "I was talking about having them to continue living together in their tent."

Eresha glanced from Edi to Nir. Was it possible? Did she dare hope? "They're children!" exclaimed Nir.

"Children who managed to take care of themselves for over a year before you finally decided to interfer," Edi retorted.

"Yes, but they're also girls! Their father or future husband is suppose to provide for them, and they're a little young for an engagement yet."

His comment was met with a stern cold look. "What have we discussed about women? Women are perfectly capable doing everything men do."

The future Nir sighed. He was used to conversations like this between his parents. Eresha however was not. Her mother never talked back like to her father. The current Nir pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know, but-"

"But nothing," said Edi cutting him off. "Either women are capable of taking care of themselves or they're not. I'm going out in the woods to meditate. When you're done come find me. Hopefully you'll make the right decision." Not even bothering to let him respond, she walked out of the tent leaving him speechless. Eresha couldn't help but admire her. She hoped that somebody she would be that strong to stand up to somebody and leave them speechless.

"You better do what she wants," Nir advised his father. "Remember the last time you two got into it?"

"How can I forget?" His father replied. "She didn't speak to me for a month. And she knows how much it bothers me when she'll talk to everybody else but me." Nir then turned back to Eresha. "Fine. You can remain living with Inanna in your family tent. But, I need to take her needs into account as well. If she wants to live with somebody else, get engaged, move in with another family, you are not to interfere with her happiness. As long as she wants to live with you I will allow it. But if she's older and changes her mind, you'll let her go without a fight. Understand Eresha?"

"I understand," said Eresha, nodding her head. She was so relieved that she would be able to stay with Ana, she would have agreed to any terms Nir set. Besides, why would Ana ever want to leave her?

* * *

And so the years passed. Nir died, with his wife soon behind him, and their son taking over. Ana and Eresha stayed together and passed time spending it in the library. With each passing year they saw their father less and less, until his body was found. Neither shed any tears at his funeral. At one point Dumid, one of the king's guards showed interest in Eresha, even saying that Inanna was more than welcome to join them in their tent. But Eresha just kept saying she wasn't ready for marriage and he eventually gave up. And it was perfect. Just her and Inanna alone forever. Until Ana had to go and ruin it.

When Nir had made the announcement in camp that night about an elf volunteering to marry the goblin king so Nir could get his human bride, Eresha had shuddered in horror at the thought. Why would any elf volunteer to go down to those dark, damp, caves? She then went back to the tent with Ana, grateful that they were far away from the goblins. When Inanna had left as they were getting ready for bed, Eresha hadn't thought much of it. But then she didn't come back, and Eresha got curious. She walked out and heard Ana's voice in Nir's tent, talking about marrying the monster.

Eresha barged in, wondering what on earth her sister was thinking. Ana gave her some line about the goblins having books and things for her to learn. Eresha wanted to shake her, remind her of their promise, when Nir stepped in and reminded Eresha of hers with his father. Of not interfering with Inanna's happiness. Relenting, she went back to their tent, showing her feelings by refusing to speak to Ana. _Perhaps she'll come to her sense after a good day's sleep_. But she didn't. She had walked away with the monster the next night.

Beside herself, Eresha couldn't understand why her sister left her alone, why she had broken the promise they had made all those nights ago. She comforted herself by reminding herself that Nir would finally be able to get a decent bride, a bride that the goblin king had wanted and Nir had taken away from him. That was some consolation at least. The elf king had taken the goblin king's bride away.

But then he had come back with the drab thing, the wrong girl he had said. It had better be the wrong girl Eresha thought, otherwise she would have doubted her king's mind for wanting to fight the goblin king for the pathetic creature in front of her.

How could her sister have traded her life away for this thing? Poor Ana, had wasted her life under false pretenses. And when she finally had the honor of meeting her dear brother-in-law, he had mocked her, and expected her to believe Ana was happy there and he would never let her go. The only way to separate a king and his wife was death, he had told her. Eresha fumed at this, especially when he walked away from her, not even awaiting a response. She was a lord's daughter and should be treated with respect!

But then the chance for revenge presented itself. Goblins loved revenge, she had read, and this piece of revenge was almost too good to be true. Almost. Nir, to her horror, was letting the Wrong Girl go. He was going to let the elf population dwindle back down to nothing. Well, not if Eresha could help it. Instead she had gradually pointed out the flaws in the seven star spell, how the Wrong Girl would be responsible for the elves demise, and what she could do to prevent such a terrible fate. As the Wrong Girl walked away from camp, Eresha couldn't help but feel some sense of victory. She had avenged her sister's actions, and the elves would be given another chance to right the wrong that Nir was too cowardly to do himself.

Except she had come back. The last person she had expected, had walked back into camp that night, and for twice that night Eresha was in a state of shock. Disgusted, she watched as they all danced in celebration for _her_. For the girl who wasn't even suppose to be there, for the girl who wasn't even pretty for a human.

It was then Eresha made her choice. She would join Ana in the dank caves. Surely it couldn't be as bad as watching the other elves celebrating the marriage of their king to the drab one. She'd even be able to keep their promise about being together forever. So she walked out of the camp, wandered into goblin territory and found a goblin on duty. Too easy. All she had to do was bat her eyes a little and he was putty in her hands, guiding her to the throne room.

Eresha didn't think much at first of the demands that Marak had made her agree to, she was with Ana again. And given the control she had over her sister, she was sure that she would be able to get out of marrying a ugly goblin. But then Ana stood up to her. That was the third time within twenty-four hours Eresha was speechless. But she quickly recovered. Clearly Ana was not in her right sense of mind. The goblins must have brain washed her.

That was why she spent so much time in the library, to find a way to cure her sister. To study the goblins' history and magic and figure out what they did to her beloved Ana. She also spent her time there to avoid the goblins. Within the first week Marak had tried to set her up with several of them, including the blue one that perverted his elf blood. They hated each other on sight. In the library she managed to avoid most of them, since they would grow quickly bored of looking at her while she read. One of the few ones she actually talked to was Lefou, a beaver looking goblin that brought her food from the kitchens so she could avoid the goblins at dinner.

As an elf she missed the stars, and had actually been looking forward to spending the full moon alone with her sister. One of the few times He wouldn't be around. But instead of Him, the Wrong Girl was there. They glared at each other, and Ana decided to break the awkward silence and try out her English on the girl. From that point on they ignored Eresha. Eresha loved the stars, but not if it meant being ignored by her sister simply so she could talk to the Wrong Girl. At the next one she learned that He had joined them which squashed any last chance of her joining them, even after Ana begged her. Eresha refused, citing she was still learning about goblin history.

* * *

Time passed. Eresha spent less and less time with her sister, and more and more determined to get her back. The Wrong Girl's sister showed up in the kingdom. She had heard what transpired between her and Babar from Lefou one night when he brought her some stew. She had actually smiled at the idea of a human taking out a goblin. Perhaps the two girls could be friends, seeing how both of their lives ruined by the goblins taking their sisters. She had been busy reading when she bumped into the girl. One look at the expression on her face, her drab look, and who she was hanging out with it, made it clear that being friends was not really much of an option. Oh well. Eresha wouldn't need friends once she got her sister back.

A couple months later, Ana had sent her a request to meet with her, saying that she had some exciting news to share. Eresha went to her rooms, thinking maybe her sister was back. But instead, she had learned that Ana was expecting His child.

"I wanted a chance to tell you first before we announce to the rest of the goblins tonight at dinner," Ana had explained.

"How horrible," Eresha had cried out, upon learning the news.

"Horrible?" asked Ana, not expecting this response, "It's wonderful. We're so excited, especially Marak. He says that very few wives have settled into the kingdom as quickly as I have."

Surprised to see Ana thrilled, Eresha asked, "You actually want to have his child?"

"Of course, I love him. Why wouldn't I want to have his child?" Ana had replied.

That's when it dawned on Eresha. "Poor Ana, the goblins must have put a spell on you so you would actually want to give birth to the monster's son."

"Monster?" cried Ana. "Marak is not a monster, he's my husband. And the goblins certainly didn't put any spells on me to want to have the heir. Is that why you've been avoiding me all this time in the library? Because you thought the goblins had bespelled me into staying here and liking it? They didn't need magic to help me settle in the kingdom, they did it with kindness and caring. Which is more than I can say for you," she said with bitter disappointment in her voice. "Now you can accept that I love the goblins and am looking forward to the birth of my child or not. I was hoping that you would be happy for me, and clearly I was wrong." Done speaking, Ana turned her back on her sister and walked out the door.

Eresha was left sitting on a chair. She had it wrong. Her sister had never been brainwashed, bespelled, or tricked by the goblins. She had left Eresha willingly. Had broken their promise willingly. From what she read in the library, Eresha knew that the wives who settled into the kingdom the quickest didn't have the best home life. Which meant that Ana hated living with Eresha. How could she be so ungrateful after everything Eresha had done for her? After feeding her, watching after her, caring for her all those years? How could Ana leave her just like that?

That thought bothered Eresha the most. The thought of Ana moving on with her life, leaving Eresha behind. Of starting her own family and living her own life without Eresha in it. Which clearly had to be her intent when she married Him. She had never wanted Eresha to be part of her new life, so she ran somewhere that she didn't think Eresha would follow. Except she had. And now Ana was going to have the heir, another sign of moving on. And Eresha was going to be left all alone. All alone in the caves without stars. The thought had been more bearable knowing Ana would be miserable with her. But now the thought of being all alone underground with a gross goblin husband was too much. So Eresha decided to take a page out of the goblin's handbook. Revenge.

Eresha had learned a lot from all those months reading in the library and now was the time to use her new knowledge. It was much easier than she could ever imagine, she even had the perfect scapegoat. The Wrong Girl's sister suspected nothing as Eresha sat down to her. While the others were standing up and cheering at the news, it had been so simple to slip some drops of a sleeping potion into the girls drink. She didn't dare use magic for the others would have surely detected it, but the drink, was brilliance. Soon the girl showed signs of it's effects and excused herself from the table. Eresha followed and walked her back to her room and helped her into bed. The girl had been more than happy to tell her where to find the knife and other weapon she had used on Babar.

From there Eresha knew that Ana would be in her study, finishing things for the day. She caught Lefou in the hallway and gave him a goblet of juice that she thought Ana would appreciate it and asked him to deliver it. He had been more than happy to comply. What he didn't know was that the juice was mixed with poison. When Ana went to reach for it, the Charm spell was activated and Lefou was bitten. Seeing the gold snake slither out of the room, Eresha knew it was time for the next part of the plan.

One thing she had noticed, was that the goblin king's Wife protection spells had a loophole similar to the elf's. She had picked up on it in the Wife chronicle's, specifically the one known as Kate. She had gone to London to save the creatures of all things. Once there Charm had left her to kill the enchanter who had summoned the goblins to him. While gone, Kate was left vulnerably to attacks. So Eresha did the same. Presented a threat to the king's Wife, and once Charm left, Ana was an easy target.

Sure she had magic, but that was what the taser thing was for. Ana had barely known what had happened before falling to the floor after being attacked by it. "You broke your promise," said Eresha as she fell. "I'm keeping it for you."

From there she stabbed her sister in the stomach, blood spilling everywhere. Normally elves detested metal, but in this case Eresha was willing to make an exception. Then she slit Lefou's throat so he couldn't blab about his role and what Eresha had sent him to do. It was a pity. Lefou was actually useful. Oh well, he was an acceptable lost. Eresha walked out of the room, put the weapons back in the girl's room, and waited.

She didn't have to wait long for the news. Marak himself delivered it to her, telling her that Ana had been attacked. He appeared to be actually sorry for what happened, and kept talking about how if it hadn't been for the heir she would have died. How he had done everything in his power to save her, and he swore revenge at the one responsible. The blue one and some other hideous goblin joined them and were discussing who was responsible and they managed to stumble upon the connection to the girl without her help. All she had to do was give them the why and off they went to arrest her.

Eresha had then sat down next to the bed where her sister was laying. With her pale face, and slow breathing, Eresha was reminded of their mother. She knew that the goblin kings had powerful magic at a young age, but truly didn't expect it to be enough to save her sister. Not that it mattered. In a couple days the goblins would face a fate worse than death, and Ana would be wishing she had died that night.

****Author's Note****

This chapter has been a long time coming, and finally reveals what she's been thinking the whole entire time. Not that it excuses her behavior, but at least it helps explains it.

Thanks goes to speederina, JayLah, SiriusBlackisSeriuslyfunny333 for reviews. Reviews give me feedback on how I'm doing as a writer. So I'll be interested in knowing what you think of this chapter and whether or not all this makes sense for Eresha's character.

Next chapter is titled, You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly! It's shorter than my chapters normally are, so there's going to be an addition to the author's note. Since the series is coming to an end, I want to start sharing some information about characters, deleted scenes, alternate endings, etc... Next chapter will have name origins. Some names popped into my head, others were chosen for a specific reason. If there's anything specific you want to see or have me address, PM me or leave it in a review. I do still have some surprises in store, so I may not be able to answer till the end of the series.

Also, it's September which means this month's writing challenge is now open for submissions. Also, don't forget to vote for your favorite entry from last month's challenge. The poll is opened till September 15, so don't forget to vote! Check it out on the Hallow Hill Lodge forum.

I've also done a really really really really really bad thing. I started writing another HK fic. Which is bad seeing as I already have a bunch of homework, the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering test on Oct. 29, 8 hours long and is needed for me to be licensed), clubs, and another fanfic I'm coauthoring that has been put on the back burner due to my already busy schedule. But the other day inspiration and a new idea struck and won't leave me alone. I'm thinking I'll have it mostly finished by the time After is done since it's rather short.

As always, read, enjoy, and review!


	15. You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

Don't forget, the September Challenge is now open, and you can now vote for your favorite submission from the August Challenge over at the Hallow Hill Lodge forum. Also don't forget about my own fic, Happily. That is all.

**You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!**

Candace returned home a different person. No longer was she the selfish, manipulative, take charge person she had once been. Alice's kidnapping had changed all that. Instead she was more quiet, reserved, thought more about her actions, and more grateful. Her parents upon learning that their daughter had been the one the kidnapper was originally after changed as well. They stopped comparing her so much to her sisters, and appreciated her more. Sometimes a person really doesn't appreciate what they have until it's gone.

That wasn't the only change. Arriving back, she found herself surrounded by reporters and her so called friends. They couldn't believe how poor sweet Alice had been taken. It was enough to make Candace gag. They had certainly never cared about her before, and now they were acting as if they were her best friend. That was why Candace began to distance herself from who she used to be. She stopped hanging out with former friends, didn't return their phone calls, and stayed at home for the rest of the summer.

Perhaps the most drastic change was ever since that night, she was on high alert. Always checking over her shoulder to see if she was being followed, double checking locked doors, sleeping with a frying pan underneath her pillow, never staying out late. Even sleep seemed to be giving her trouble. At the slightest noise, she would wake with a start, checking her room for intruders. Paranoia, high anxiety, whatever it was, her father being a doctor gave her a prescription to help. They helped some, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that horrible was going to happen to her if she wasn't careful.

When it came to what to do in the fall, Candace knew she couldn't go to college with Nick. They were over. He had made that clear enough on the long flight home, barely speaking to her except when he needed to. Even once home, he had thrown himself into work and volunteer efforts to get Alice off his mind. The only reasons she had chosen the local university was to be with Nick, but now she just wanted to avoid him. She applied to several other schools at the last minute and only managed to get into one.

It was several hours away from home, so she was hoping nobody she knew would be there. She was wrong. The first day in her History 101B class she heard a voice next to her. "I know you. You're the girl responsible for Alex's sister going missing." Candace turned to look at the person who sat down next to her. He was tall and had gorgeous blond hair. The old Candace would have been all over him. But the new one simply said, "You know Alex?"

"Of course I know Alex, she's my friend. She took the semester off to go look for Alice," he responded in a how-dumb-can-you-be voice.

"Wait," said Candace slowly, "Alex goes here? To this school?"

"Currently no. She's in England looking for her sister. Weren't you listening? But she'll be back in the spring."

Candace sighed. Leave it to her to pick the school Alex was going to, simply to get away from Nick. She wanted to face-palm herself. "How's the whole Alice thing going?" Candace asked out of curiosity and guilt.

"Um..." said the gorgeous blond, "It's going well. She's certainly making progress."

There was something he wasn't tell her, but Candace wasn't going to pry. It was her usual style, but not anymore. "You know my name, but what's yours?"

"Finn," was the only response he gave since the teacher had just walked in and started class.

* * *

The next couple weeks passed and they continued to sit next to each other. Not because they really liked each other, but it was more comforting to sit next to people you vaguely know versus complete strangers. Over time they started spending more time together. It had little to with friendship and more to do with not wanting to be alone. It was true that Finn had more friends since meeting Alex, but it wasn't the same without her. Candace hadn't bothered on trying to make friends, but instead concentrated on her schoolwork, with the grades showing her effort. So the two spent time with each other just to have some human contact. Their time had originally started with Finn helping Candace with her Alegbra class. In exchange, Candace would drive him home over the holidays. He lived halfway between school and Candace's hometown, and had always depended on Alex for a ride home since he didn't have a car at school.

That's why she went to Finn's room. To figure out what time they were leaving the next day for the start of Thanksgiving break. Only she found him pacing back and forth in his room, a frantic mess.

"Hey," she said from behind. "Is everything ok?"

"No," he replied once he saw her. "Nothing's okay Candace. Alex is gone."

From there Finn debated whether or not to tell Candace the truth. Candace knew that Alex had gone in search for her sister, but didn't know about finding her or the elves and goblins. But Alex had missed her check-ins. And the only person who might believe him was Candace.

* * *

When he was done explaining what Alex had found, Candace starred at him. Goblins and elves were responsible for Alex and Alice being missing? Sure, she had heard the stories while over there, but that didn't mean she actually believed them. Seeing her doubting look, Finn pulled up a photo on his laptop. It was Alice, in the same garb that Candace had seen her ghost in, sitting next to Alex, both smiling.

"This photo was taken a couple weeks ago during their last full moon together, before Alice moved to the winter camp," explained Finn. Candace was about to object to the photo being altered, but she had never given the details on what Alice had been wearing, just that it reminded her of an indian. So how could Finn know about the green strange looking dress to include it in the picture?

"So, they're real then? The goblins and elves?"

"Quite a shock I know, but it explains a lot."

"Wait... you mean it could have been me married to the elf king?" asked Candace.

Finn answered, "It was suppose to be, but then Nir fell for your trick."

Candace was full with rage. All these months she had been living with the guilt, and Alice was the wife of a gorgeous elf who was a king, when it really should have been Candace. She had trouble sleeping, waking from nightmares of somebody reaching out for her from the darkness. Her father who was a doctor had to describe her sleeping pills just so she could sleep through the night without waking up and screaming. She was constantly looking over her shoulder for stalkers, home by ten, and no longer had a social life.

"Let's go get Alex," she said with a smile that slowly spread across her face. Finn was unnerved by it, since he had never seen the expression before. Plus he had picked up on the we. "We? No, no. You. Just you. I don't fly."

"Why not?"

Finn then started his speel about flying. "I know there's a higher probability of dying in a car accident than a plane crash, but for some reason my brain doesn't process it. Instead it processes the image of me falling several miles while achieving terminal velocity-".

Candace cut him off. "I get it. You don't like flying. How about we discuss what to do over a drink? Is there still some fruit punch in your fridge?"

"You know very well I'm always stocked with fruit punch. It's healthy and refreshing," he said as Candace walked over and pulled two out of the fridge. And that was how Finn learned to never accept open beverage containers.

Sipping on his drink he proposed, "Perhaps I should give Alex one more try. Just to make sure I'm not panicking for nothing."

"Sounds like a great idea," Candace responded, her broad smile still creeping Finn out.

The phone rang a couple times before, to Finn's relief somebody picked up. "Finally!" he said. "I was starting to worry about you. See Candace, I told you Alex was fine." Candace snorted at this.

Except then there was an unexpected response. "Who is this?" asked a voice that clearly was too old to be Alex's.

"You're not Alex," Finn responded slowly.

* * *

Nine hours later, Finn was kissing the ground. "Land," he cried, "Oh sweet land, how I have missed thee."

Candace just rolled her eyes. She really didn't know how Alex put up with Finn. If she was around him as much as Alex was, she would have killed him by now. As it was, she had to trick him into leaving school a day early and drug him for the flight after finishing talking with Aggie. The drug wore off close to the end of the flight and Finn woke up to discover that he had been tricked. But by that point there was no turning back. To occupy his thoughts he recited the Periodic Table of Elements.

"You do realize we still have to go back, right?"

Finn just let out a groan.

****Author's Note****

Big thanks to speederina, JayLah, and CeCe for reviews. CeCe, since your review wasn't signed, my response is at the bottom.

Next chapter Eresha's true plan is revealed among other things. It's called, Drip Drip Drop Little April Shower.

Now as promised, character origins. The following deals with main characters just from Ever. After will be another chapter.

**Marak Chameleonskin**: At one point he mentions his name was originally Chameleontail until his parents realized what he could do. That was true, I changed his name later. His inspiration and chameleon qualities come from Pascal in Tangled.

**Aganir Suen**: His inspiration is based on Nir from In The Coils of The Snake. Nir's moodiness, doubting, leadership, relationship with Marak, etc... was inspired by Nir. 'Suen' comes from the name of a Sumerian moon god.

**Candace**: 'Candace' means queen, which is funny since both kings wanted to marry her initially. Her personality is actually a combination of three different girls I've known through out my life. She has one part cocky personality, one part a 'me me me' personality, and one part little miss perfect personality. One of my friends who read Ever, didn't think Candace got everything she deserved. As a result I brought her back in After, and as you saw, she's not 100% since she returned from Hallow Hill.

**Alice**: I wanted a simple name since she has a rather simple personality. Alice fits that, and is also the name of Alice in Wonderland. At one point Alice references living among the elves as a Wonderland of sorts, and relates to the girl from that story. I thought it was rather fitting for a girl who wandered into a land that she doesn't quite understand.

**Inanna and Eresha**: My first names, and ones that have the most meaning. Both come from Sumerian myths. Inanna was a Sumerian goddess who is known for her descent into the Underworld (aka the goblin caves). Once there, the Queen of the Underworld, Ereshkigal (Eresha), who is also Inanna's sister, has her killed. Other things happen, and Inanna is revived, but the basic story of Eresha killing her sister Inanna remained.

Originally, Inanna was going to die. In After she would be attacked by Eresha, Alex would get blamed, and eventually end up with Marak. I changed my mind while writing Beauty and the Beast and Something There in Ever. I realized that I liked them as a couple, and couldn't bare to separate them. I also couldn't see Alex and Marak together as a couple. So I came up with Kayto and Finn, and the plot of After changed for the better.

**Nick**: Poor Nick, he really doesn't get the spotlight a whole lot. Honestly, Nick just popped into my head and seemed to fit his character. At first, I envisioned Nick and Candace still together, but realized that if he was truly such a great guy, he wouldn't stay with the girl that caused his sister to go missing. He reminds me of a Hardy boy, the golden boy, etc... I never quite deal with him in the epilogue, but I can see him becoming a doctor, getting involved with missing children, going to needy countries to help as a doctor, etc... Marries a girl, and lives the rest of his life out quietly, never knowing the truth about what happened to Alice. I can't see him believing in elves and goblin as easily as Candace. Mainly because he wouldn't get why if Alice was really alive, why she never tried to escape, etc...

**Response to CeCe's review**:

First off, I'm glad you found my story, and your review made my day.

Second, I did consider being a writer. At the time I didn't think I was good enough to make a living doing it professionally. I also get very bored in my classes, especially English since they come easily to me. Engineering actually challenges me more, and I know I can make a living doing it.

Then I started Ever and After, and began to change my mind about writing. Up to this point, I had started many stories, some original, some fanfics, but had never finished them. Ever was the first, decent story I finished. Writing Ever taught me many things that I had never applied to any of my stories from before. Developing characters, coming up with a decent plot and twists, and above all having an end in mind. I started so many stories that sounded great, but never completed them because I didn't have an ending in mind.

Finishing Ever and After and seeing the positive reception, got me to thinking again about writing. About a month ago I was hit with a good idea, and I've been writing it on the side. So far it's about the total length of Ever, and is just the beginning, so it holds a lot of promise. Now that school has started, I don't know how much time I'll be able to devote to it.

Ideally in a year, I will have a job, passed the FE, finished the story and possible have it published. Whether or not that'll happen, we'll see. But I would love to be both a professional writer and engineer instead of choosing between the two.

Thanks again for your generous review and the wishes. It's reviews like yours that made me reconsider that it was possible for me to succeed as a writer after all.


	16. Drip Drip Drop Little April Shower

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

Also don't forget to go over to the Clare B. Dunkle forums, click on Hallow Hill Lodge, and vote for the August Writing Challenge. The poll closes September 15!

Then check out the September Writing Challenge and start submitting some!

**Drip Drip Drop Little April Shower**

"What do you want? To apologize for trying to kill my sister?"

"Actually I was wondering why you tried to."

Alex and Eresha glared at each icily for a couple of seconds. After figuring out that it was Eresha who framed her, Alex had asked the guards to request a visit with her. Surprised at the request, they complied, and a little over an hour later Eresha was in front of her. Alex had no doubt she would come. Probably curious to see if the little human figured plan. The guards tried to insist their presence incase the prisoner got violent, but Eresha had waved her hand at them, assuring them that her magic was more than enough to deal with a measly little human.

"I have absoutely no idea what you're talking about," Eresha vehmently denied.

Alex was not in the mood to play games. "Drop the act, Eresha, I know it was you who drugged me last night and tried to kill Inanna."

"Do you have any proof of the crimes that you accuse me of?"

"No," conceded Alex, "But what I want to know is why. Why would you try to kill your own sister? If I'm about to die I at least deserve to know why."

Glancing behind her, to double check that the stone door was closed and the guards couldn't hear, Eresha said, "The little human figured out my plan after all, unlike the goblins. Very well, I'll answer your questions. Even if you start shrieking for Marak, it won't matter in the end."

"Start with the first. Why did you try to kill Inanna?"

"She left me. She left me for that monster of a husband," Eresha said with her voice dripping of poison. "And when she told me she was expecting the heir and actually happy, well I knew I had to do something."

Alex looked at her in disgust. "That's it? You try to kill your sister because she was trying to have her own life?"

Eresha snapped at her. "I was her life," she snarled in Alex's face. "We promised each other that nobody would ever become between us, that it would be us, together forever."

"And that was why she ran," pointed out Alex.

Eresha hadn't expected that for an answer, for her head jerked up. "What?"

Alex sighed. "I was the same with Alice. Always protecting her, looking after her, spending all my time with her. When it came to college, I thought about staying there so I could continue to do so. But then I realized, if I didn't gave her space, she'd never be able to do anything on her own and might resent me for it someday. Like the way Inanna resented you and ran to the goblins."

"Ana didn't resent me! She... she was brainwashed by the monsters. That's why she left," Eresha insisted.

Alex rolled her eyes. "Denial isn't just a river in Egypt you know." Seeing Eresha's confused face, she added, "It's a human saying."

"Not a very good one. If you would have stayed with your sister, none of this would have happened. Mine would have never left, the switch would never have occurred!"

"Inanna would have just found another way to get away from you. Maybe she would have run to a human," suggested Alex.

Eresha slapped her and Alex rubbed her cheek in shock. Nobody had ever slapped her before. "Don't you dare say such a thing about my sister you brat! You'll be regretting what you did to me, along with the rest of the monsters soon enough!"

Recovering from the shock, Alex looked back up at her and said, "What do you mean I'll regret it with the rest of them soon enough? Does this have to do with the comment earlier?"

Sensing that she had said too much, Eresha began to back up. Only to her horror, she heard a familar voice from behind her. "I was wondering the same thing myself. What exactly do you have planned Eresha?"

* * *

An hour earlier, Kayto was with Aggie at the Truce Circle. "Why are we here? I have more important things I could be doing."

"Hush, you," was her response. "I promise it's very important, just keep an open mind."

"Why do I need an open mind-". Kayto stopped in the middle of his sentence. For coming into the clearing were two humans. One he recognized as the girl that the two kings had been fighting over. The other looked to be a tall, human male. Now he understood why he needed to have an open mind. That still didn't stop him from dropping his jaw though at the new comers. Was Aggie senile?

"Ah," said the human male, "You must be Aggie and Kayto. Alex has told me quite a bit about you."

Kayto turned to question Aggie. What did he mean that Alex had told him quite a bit about them? How? When?

Aggie sensing where he was headed, raised a hand in front of them. "Your questions will be answered, but right now there are more important things to consider. I have reason to believe that Alex didn't try to kill Inanna. My best guess is Eresha. I never did like that one. Kayto, you know Marak. Right now he's in a fury and there's no point in talking to him. We have to rescue Alex, capture Eresha, and then force her to tell the truth."

"That can be arranged," said Kayto, thoughtfully. He hadn't wanted to believe Alex was capable of such a thing, but the evidence was against her. The weapons were found in her room, she couldn't remember what she did last night. But now there was a chance that she was innocent after all. Just then he remembered something rather important. "Aggie, as I was leaving, Babar was delivering a message from Alex to Eresha, requesting to see her."

"She must have figured out that Eresha framed her," concluded Finn.

"Indeed," answered Kayto. "And there's no telling what Eresha will do to her now that she knows the truth."

"Well, it appears then that time is of the essence, and we're wasting it by chit-chatting here," responded Aggie.

* * *

With Kayto to guide them, the four of them soon made their way to Alex's prison. Kayto led, followed by Finn with his flashlight, then Candace, and Aggie at the end. The whole time Finn complained about the weight of the earth above become too much and collapsing to crush him to death. Kayto assured him there were spells to prevent that sort of thing. Finn's response was a line about how they said the same of the Titanic.

Eventually, they arrived at the stone door, with two guards posted outside. Candace and Finn stayed off to the side out of sight, while Kayto and Aggie encouraged the guards to take a break from duty. Once the guards were gone, they entered the prison, only to hear Eresha threatening Alex.

"Don't you dare say such a thing about my sister you brat!" They heard her yell. "You'll be regretting what you did to me, along with the rest of the monsters soon enough!"

"What do you mean I'll regret it with the rest of them soon enough? Does this have to do with the comment earlier?" was Alex's response.

That was when Kayto spoke up, "I was wondering the same thing myself. What else do you have planned Eresha?"

Eresha reeled around to find Kayto with three humans. Alex was shocked by the sight as well. "Finn!" she cried, followed by, "Candace?"

Aggie stepped to the front and said, "Explanations will be given, but right now I'm more interested in what Eresha was saying."

"As am I," agreed Kayto.

At this, Eresha started to laugh. "As if I would ever tell the likes of you. One goblin and four humans? Please, I am more than capable of taking you down."

Kayto then asked, "Finn, may I borrow that flash thing of yours?"

Finn had turned it off earlier, so the guards wouldn't be alerted to his presence. "It's not a 'flash thing'" he said as he handed it over, "it's called a flashlight."

Not paying a bit of attention to the human correcting him, Kayto aimed the flashlight straight at Eresha's face and turned it on. The bright light hurt Kayto's eyes, but not as much as it hurt the elf's. Eresha collapsed to the floor with her hands over her eyes, shrieking in pain.

With his eyes closed, Kayto's response was, "Humans are much more clever than you give them credit for Eresha. You may have magic, but with the amount of pain you're in, your mind is too clouded to perform any."

"Make it stop," Eresha cried, "Make it stop!" Her eyes were leaking tears, and despite having her head buried in arms on the floor, the light still managed to reach into the darkness.

"First, admit your guilt," said Aggie, with an edge in her voice. Eresha had nearly killed her daughter-in-law and future grandson, and then had blamed Alex. Any sympathy Aggie had was long gone.

"I killed Lefou and tried to kill Ana. Now please just make it stop," Eresha admitted.

"What else have you done," demanded Alex.

"I found a weakness in the Lake spell. When the sun rises, The spell will fail and the Lake fall into the kingdom."

"Is that even possible?" asked Aggie.

Instead of Kayto answering, it was Alex. "I've studied the spells the dwarves put on it, and it possible. The spells are good, but even the smallest crack can cause the most secure structure to fail. The same goes for the Lake. All Eresha had to do was find a weak spot to insert the smallest of spells, and wait for it to spread until the pressure is too much for the other spells to take. Then the spells will fail in order to release the pressure."

Puzzled, Finn asked, "But given the kingdom's dimensions that Alex provided me with, and given the volume of water, it'll just fill the kingdom a couple feet deep. I fail to see what the problem is."

Despite her pain, Eresha laughed. "And what will the humans think when their Lake dissappears, hmm? What will they say at the site of the strange creatures below? And the poor goblins will be so blinded by the sun, they won't be able to perform any spells to save their kingdom."

The goblin and four humans went quiet at this. True, the water wouldn't do much damage, but it was the aftermath that would ruin the goblins. The curious humans, and their prodding, while the goblins would be unable to do anything, not being able to deal with the light. By the time it would be dark, their images would be all over the world, and their secret would be out. There would be no going back, like the old days. No massive memory spells to be performed, with just a couple stories for proof. Instead the whole world would know of their existence and would never leave them alone.

With the fate of the goblins weighing heavily on their minds, nobody spoke at first. It was finally spoken by Candace, of all people. "I'm new to the whole, goblin, elf, magic thing, but shouldn't we like, do something?"

"Yes," answered Kayto who looked at Candace thoughtfully, "we should."

****Author's Note****

Originally, Eresha was just going to try to Inanna. Then the Lake plot popped into my head, and I realized that could be her real focus, with Inanna's attack a diversion to her real plan. Yeah, I'm sneaky like that.

In other news, two more weeks till After is done. That's right, only four more chapters to go.

Thanks goes to speederina and CeCe for reviews. I'm looking forward to reading reviews for the next couple of chapters. The next chapter is continuing with the water theme in, The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down.

CeCe, have you ever thought of becoming a motivational speaker? Because reading your reviews motivate me to write more _and_ do hydraulics homework. It's quite an accomplishment for me to_ want_ to do hydraulics since there are usually a lot of problems assigned and the teacher likes to be tricky with his problems. So congrats on that talent. As the date of the FE exam (Oct. 29) comes closer, I have a feeling I'll be rereading your reviews a lot.

Anyways, read, enjoy, and review!


	17. The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song. Enough said.

**The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down**

Once Eresha's plan was revealed, Kayto went into Lieutenant mode. He drained Eresha of her magic, and locked her in the prison. Eresha didn't put up much of a fight as Alex, Candace, Aggie, and Finn held her down while Kayto concentrated on the spells. She got in some kicks, scratches, and bites, mostly at Kayto. Not to truly get away, but more so out of enjoyment of causing Kayto pain. "It's too late," Eresha laughed wildly as the group locked her in the room, "The sun will be rising soon, and it's too late for you to stop the spell, try all you want."

"Somebody has a screw or too lose upstairs," murmured Candace. It turned out to be an unfortunate mistake. By speaking up, Alex was suddenly reminded of her presence and had a couple things to say about her.

"What's she doing here?" demanded Alex of Finn, sticking her index finger in Candace's direction. Candace blushed realizing her mistake and looked at the ground. She had known sooner or later she would have to deal with Alex, but was hoping for later. Kayto and Aggie looked on in amusement, while Finn was struggling to find the right words, knowing how fond of Candace Alex was.

Finally he answered, "She helped me with...flying."

That was not an answer that Alex had expected. Actually she didn't know what she was expecting, but that certainly not it. She had been trying to help him for years, but then _she_ came along and did it within months. It wasn't fair. Alex had known Finn longer, and he was _her_ friend. She hadn't seen him in months, and when she does, he was with_ her_. Alex wasn't jealous, but it still wasn't fair. Stomping her foot angrily into the ground she continued, "How did she help you exactly? Especially since I've been trying to help you for the past couple years! What does she have, that I don't?"

"Drugs," answered Candace bluntly. "Ever since, well, everything, I've been on anxiety medication and slipped some into Finn's fruit punch. He didn't notice since he was too busy rambling on about flying and going splat on the ground. Honestly, Alex, I don't know how you put up with him all the time, and I've only known him for a couple months. If I were you, I would have strangled him by now." Candace had added the last bit to quell Alex's jealousy. Alex could deny she wasn't in love all she wanted, but Candace had seen enough jealous girlfriends, including herself, over the years to recognize the look Alex was wearing.

Finn was still speechless, trying to process what happened, when Kayto finally stepped in. He had heard quite a bit about Candace from Alex, and knew if he didn't do something, it would be too late to stop Eresha's plan. "Look, now is not the time for this. Alex, didn't you tell me that Alice was happy with Nir and the elves? That she was happier than she had been in a long time?"

"Yes," whispered Alex.

"Then let's move on. There are more important things to do, besides getting into a fight with Candace and wasting valuable time."

Alex conceded with, "Fine."

"Good," said Aggie stepping in. "I'll go try to talk Marak down, Kayto you get Nir, I sense we might need his magic." She then turned to the other three humans. "You three go alert the dwarves of what's going on."

"Actually, I was hoping that I might be able to go with Kayto to see the elves," said Candace stepping forward.

Kayto looked from Candace to Alex's glare, and realized it might be for the best to keep them separated. "That's fine with me."

"Fine with me," replied Alex.

As the groups split up, Finn couldn't help but shake his head. He felt as if he had just missed something important.

* * *

Candace looked at the goblin next to her. She wasn't used to a lot of guys being so much taller than her. Actually she wasn't used to guys having blue skin, like from that alien movie, Avatar, a couple years ago. The special effects were amazing, but she kept expecting them to break into song since the plot reminded her so much of Pocahontas.

He walked briskly, and Candace had trouble trying to keep up with him. "Thanks," she said quietly, not sure if he could hear her.

He had. Not even bothering to turn his head, he responded, "For what?"

"For stepping in between me and Alex. We've never been friends exactly, and ever since Alice disappeared..." her voice then started to trail off.

"No problem. Alex, can be a bit...unrelenting sometimes when it comes to her sister's safety," he said, thinking of how they first met.

"Yeah, tell me about it. After it happened, she kept interrogating me about it, acting like it was all my fault."

"Technically, it was all your fault. You did send Alice out there on her own." Seeing her drop her head in shame, he added, "You know, you are the first human who managed to outwit, not one, but two kings. That's something to be admired."

"Really?" asked Candace, her head bobbing up.

"Really. Normally, once a king is determined to capture a bride, she becomes a king's Wife, one way or another. You're the first I know of that's managed to escape such a fate."

This was the first time that Candace had actually been complimented on what she had done that night. She wasn't sure what to make of it. "It could have been me. I could be married to a king right now."

Kayto smirked. "What's so funny?" she asked of him.

"You could be married to an elf king right now. You could be sleeping in a tent on the ground, with two sets of clothes, eating stew, deer meat and bread for the rest of your life."

Candace scrunched her face up at this piece of news. When she heard 'elf king' she thought of beautiful people worshiping her, while sitting on a golden throne with a crown. Not of sleeping on the hard ground. Outside. With few clothes. Eating stew. And deer meat. "But I'd be a queen, right? With a crown, and throne, and everything?"

At this, Kayto chuckled. "Far from it. Elves hate metal. You'd be a queen, but your throne would be a tree stump, and your crown would be a ring of flowers."

Candace made another face, which caused Kayto to stifle a giggle at the expression on her face. "You know, on second thought, I don't think being an elf queen would have worked out for me."

"I thought so," said Kayto with a smirk. He knew that the goblin race was in danger, and he should be very concerned, but for some reason, he was enjoying it.

* * *

Before the groups separated, Kayto had pulled Alex aside. "What happened to your face?" he asked, tracing the angry red splotch on her cheek.

"Oh," said Alex self-consciously, "Eresha slapped me when I said something that she didn't like. It was actually the first time I've been slapped."

Kayto chuckled. "I doubt it's the first time somebody was tempted though. You do have quite the mouth on you."

Alex gave him one of her glares. It didn't faze him as he was used to them by this point. "Is there a point in all of this? If I wanted to be insulted I would be with Candace right now."

Kayto quieted down, and his face took on a more serious look. "I just wanted a chance to say... if Eresha's plan works... I'm sorry for believing you were guilty. I should have known you wouldn't be capable of such an act, but..."

"Sometimes it's easier to believe the worst in people than the best," finished Alex for him.

"Exactly. I've read about your people and the atrocities they have committed for years, and then you come along and attack Babar, but you then turned out to be okay and I had to accept I was wrong about you and humans. Then the attacks happened, and suddenly I was forced once again to question my judgement about you... and I should have trusted you. I'm sorry."

During Kayto's apologetic rambling, Alex just watched as he tried to find the right words to express what he was saying. When he was done, she replied, "It hurt that you thought I did it, but hell, for a while I thought I did it too. And it would be kinda hypocritical of me not to forgive you for jumping to conclusions, when I did the same a couple minutes ago."

"Oh?" asked a puzzled Kayto.

Alex took a deep breath and began to explain. "When Candace showed up with Finn I assumed the worst, especially when she got him to fly of all things. But then I realized he must have been really upset about me missing to even attempt it and Candace was just trying to help him. I guess she's not as awful as I once thought. Alice is happy because of her, in a twisted way."

Kayto smiled. "He means a lot to you, Finn?"

Alex shrugged. "I guess. It seems like we've known each other for like, forever. We balance each other out. Speaking of Finn, we'd better get going. There's a kingdom to save you know."

"Yes, believe me, I know."

* * *

While Kayto and Candace talked about elves, Alex led the way to the dwarves. Over the past couple months, she had done it often enough, she could close her eyes and find her way there in the dark. Lionclaw may have performed the brunt of the Lake spells, but the dwarves had been in the caves long before the goblins. They designed the spell in the first place, and taught Lionclaw how to deal with rock, earth, and water in a way to maximize space without causing a collapse on their very heads. True, Lionclaw saw the potential for the goblins in the dwarves tiny caves, but the dwarves had been there first and knew the land better. Alex had no doubt that they would know what spells to use to stop Eresha's, that they'd be able to save the goblins and dwarves for sure.

Finn followed, close behind, until at one point he tripped. "Shoelace," he explained, and then bent down to tie it.

Alex looked behind her at Finn's bent figure and sighed in exasperation. "We don't have time, Finn. Look, I'll go ahead and fill in Grindstone on what's happening and you can catch up."

From there she continued down into the valley on the way to the caves, not even bothering to wait for a response. Time was of the essence and she just had to get to Grindstone and the others. Only then would things would be alright. She was at the low point of the valley, when she felt something hit her head. Then another something. She put her hand to the top of her head, and felt water. Looking up, she saw that she was under the center of the lake. Since the Lake was 'hollow' it basically looked like an upside down dome from below. And from her classes, Alex knew the middle spot, where all the arches met, was the weakest spot of a dome. In other words, where she was standing was the location for Eresha's spell. Just as she realized the danger she was in, the dripping became a steady stream of water falling onto her head.

Alex could see the purple color of the sunrise. The sun was rising, and Eresha's spell had started and was spreading through out the rest of the lake. There was no more time to get the dwarves to stop the spells. This was it. _Think, Alex, think_. What to do? The only thought that came to her though, was that there was nothing she could do. She was a human, with no magic. Why hadn't she insisted Kayto come too? _Because I wanted to be with Finn. Because I didn't think it would be this serious. Because I was wrong. And now I'm going to pay for it dearly. And so are the goblins._

* * *

Finn looked up once he was done tying the shoelace to see where Alex had gone. Catching sight of her in the low point of valley, he was confused as to why she had stopped walking. It was then he saw something that made him freeze in fear, the cause of her sudden pause in movement. What once was a drip, was now a steady stream of water right above her head. The spell that Eresha had created was now a hole which was becoming a giant funnel, sucking the surrounding water into the center. Like a whirlpool it was determined to suck everything up, or to be more accurate, down. And standing right under the spout was Alex.

He started to run to where she was. Alex must have been in a state of shock, for she didn't move. Couldn't she see the giant funnel of terror that was about to drop on her? But Finn was too late. A thunderous roar reached his ears. The sound of several tons of water rushing down, right where Alex was standing. "Alex," Finn cried, his one arm reached out futilely, as if he could shelter her from the downpour that was about to hit her.

****Author's Note****

A cliff hanger yes. But it will all be resolved Friday, I swear, in addition to some other things I've been hinting at throughout After.

Major thanks goes to all my reviewers. JayLah, speederina, Chris, CeCe, and SiriusBlackisSeriuslyfunny333. So many in such a short time, definitely getting spoiled.

Like I said, next chapter things will start coming together and making more sense. It's called, Strangers Like Me. Also, originally this chapter was missing the Kayto apologizes to Alex scene. With all the other loose ends that I wanted to tie up, that was one that I overlooked until speederina and CeCe mentioned in their reviews that Alex deserved better treatment from Kayto, and he'd better apologize. I reread later chapters, and came to the same conclusion and hope that the new scene lived up to your expectations.

CeCe, you're right, most engineers suck at writing. It's why in a lot of my classes, teachers stress how employers want employees who can communicate well. Hence they assign lab reports, project proposals, etc... Trying to change the perception of engineers being horrible at writing.

Also the ideas of Alex saving Kayto, and a science vs. magic smackdown made me laugh so hard. Unfortunately, I already have later chapters written and there's no way to incorporate ideas like that now. It's something to think about for later though.

Chris, nice to know I made you laugh. A lot of the lines make me laugh actually, so it's nice to know I'm not alone.


	18. Strangers Like Me

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

**Strangers Like Me**

Seeing several tons of water heading straight for her, Alex knew she didn't have time to run. Instead she raised her arms above her head bracing for the impact. Even as she was preparing for the inevitable, her engineering side kicked in. She blamed Finn's influence on her, since it would be just the type of thing he would do despite being in imminent danger. _Let's see... if the density of water is 62.4 lb per cubic foot, and the dimensions of the lake are a mile or so each way, and has an average depth of... what's the point? I'm screwed no matter what the dimensions of the lake are._

Except, the 'immediate danger' that Alex was expecting, never came. After a couple seconds of not being drenched, she finally decided to look up. Several inches away from her head was a huge, sharp, icicle. In fact, all above her were icicles; the entire lake had been frozen solid. If it wasn't for the fact that she could see her breath in front of her, Alex might have mistaken the numerous icicles above her for stalactites. As Alex was trying to take in the wondrous scene above her head, she was suddenly knocked to her feet.

"You're okay, you're okay," said Finn who was embracing her. "I thought I lost you forever."

To his surprise, Alex started to laugh. She had once thought she had to be dead for Finn to show any romantic interest toward her. Turned out she was right. It took her nearly drowning for him to finally realize his. And it took seeing him with Candace, to realize hers.

"Will somebody please tell me what's going on here," boomed a voice from behind them. It was Marak, and judging by the expression on his face, he was not in a good mood.

* * *

A half hour later, in Marak's office, there was a rather eclectic group of people. Two goblins, one elf, and five humans to be exact.

The elf and one of the humans had been awaken and told that their was an emergency in the goblin kingdom and that their presence was required at once. Up to that point, they had no knowledge of the events that had transpired over the past couple of days; the goblin king wanting to keep the fate of the elf king's Wife's sister a secret until it was done. However, his lieutenant sent a message summoning then when events beyond his control started to unravel. And now, for the first time, there was an elf king in the goblin kingdom. If it wasn't for day outside, the meeting would be in the Truce Circle, or even his own camp. At any rate, he showed his displeasure by a scowl on his perfect face, that amused his wife greatly, who was seated by his side.

Another human, the oldest, was seated next to her son, with a hand on his arm, trying to keep him calm. The other goblin was standing next to his king, while the other four humans were seated in various chairs that had been gathered. The office was not use to seating such a large assortment of people.

"So let me see if I understood correctly," began the goblin king, "Eresha was the one who tried to kill Inanna and framed Alex. My mother decided it would be a bright idea to invite two humans into the kingdom. My lieutenant went behind my back and summoned the elf king and his wife. Meanwhile, my prisoner, with a human male, tried to warn the dwarves of Eresha's spell on the lake. The spell started to activate before they could, only to be frozen before it could do any serious damage. Did I miss anything?"

"That is the gist of it sir," replied his lieutenant.

Marak sent him a scathing look, still not over him going to the elf king. "Now, can somebody please tell why I wasn't informed of these matters in the first place?" His voice had started off calm, only to turn into a growing crescendo throughout the sentence before reaching an impressive shrieking noise toward the end.

This time it was a human, his mother, who answered in a much calmer tone while patting his arm. "It's because you act like a child when you get mad, unable to listen to sense until you calm down, dear. I'm afraid we didn't have time to wait, and had to act without you."

The elf started snicking at this comment, while his fellow king sent him a withering glare.

"You should have at least _attempted_ to inform me, since I am the _king_, after all."

It was the elf who responded. "And how would you have responded exactly, hmm? Would you have set your anger aside and acted in a calm manner? Would you have listened to them at all? Or would you have told them all to stuff it?"

The goblin king had no response to this. He, and the others in the room, knew what part of the above statement was true. Dodging the question he replied, "Fine then. I suppose thanks are in order for saving my kingdom then?"

The elf stared at him in confusion. "As much as I appreciate the sentiment, I have no idea what it is for."

The goblin looked back at him in equal confusion. "But weren't you the one who froze the lake?"

"No," answered his lieutenant. "The lake was frozen before I returned from the water mirror with Nir and Alice."

"Speaking of which, I demand the boundaries be reset on the mirror. Being woken up by a goblin is not my idea of privacy," voiced the elf.

Ignoring his objection, the goblin king asked, "If it wasn't you, nor Kayto, who else could have performed such a spell? By the look of it was elvish, and last time I checked, there were no other elves or elf-crosses involved that would have been capable of stopping such a spell."

Both of the kings' heads then turned toward two of the humans sitting next together, Finn and Alex.

"You don't think..." mused the goblin.

Picking up on his line of thought the elf replied, "It is possible. You of all people should know."

"True, there really is one way to confirm it though."

"Indeed. Do you want to have the honor or shall I?"

"Well, if it is true, this would fall under your area."

Looks of confusion were slowly starting to form on the faces of the others in the room. It appeared that only the kings knew what was going on. Then, before anybody could ask, the elf king pulled out an elvish knife and pricked Finn's finger with.

"What was that for?" he demanded of the elf, inspecting his injured finger. The small spot had already stopped bleeding, but it still hurt, like a paper cut. Finn wasn't fond of paper cuts. Not paying attention to Finn or the others who were starting to demand an explanation, Nir joined over the desk with his brother king and started to perform a spell.

Looking up, it was Marak who declared with a chuckle, "Alex, were you aware that your friend here is an elf?"

"Finn, an elf?" cried Alex.

Finn, the subject, was however in shock. "But I can't be an elf. I don't have the ears!"

Alex rolled her eyes. Out of all the reasons he could give for not being an elf, the first one to come to his mind was not having the ears.

This highly amused both kings who started laughing. Finally, Marak said, "You don't have the ears because of your human blood, but you do share similar features with elves. Take Kayto for example, who has strong elf blood. You're both tall, thin, have excellent bone structure, similar blond hair..."

"Probably has a love of stars," added Nir.

"Has a fear of being underground or in confined spaces," pointed out Kayto, who was joining in, now that he understood what was going on.

"Doesn't handle stress or change well," stated Alice, who had learned a thing or two about elves since she had begun living among them.

"It would certainly explain other things," mused Aggie.

Finn, however was trying to take it all in. "And to think, all this time I thought my love of the stars was due to my love of Captain Kirk and Obi-Wan, when it's actually the inverse that is true," he said with a look of awe on his face, clearly oblivious to what was going on around him.

"What is he blubbering about?" asked Nir.

"Give him so time," explained Alex with a grin on her face, "You just told the biggest Lord of the Rings fan, that he is, in fact, an elf. This is like, every Christmas and birthday present he's ever gotten, combined."

For the first time, Candace spoke up. "Wait, if Finn didn't know he was an elf, how did he freeze the lake?"

Marak turned his chameleon gaze upon her causing her to jump at his unnatural head. "Normally it takes practice to learn and perform spells, especially for a elf-cross, however," he said, then turning his gaze to Alex, "Sometimes in rare cases of stress, or when the one they love is endangered, their magic acts instinctively without their command. My guess is that's what happened when Finn saw Alex in peril. His magic acted of it's own accord, no doubt awakened by being around goblins, and did the only thing it could do to protect Alex: freeze the lake."

Alex and Finn both blushed at this revelation. They had just realized their feelings for each other, and weren't quite prepared for others to know as well so soon.

"Dear," interjected Aggie, "You have to give Finn a bit more credit than that. He's been using magic without his knowledge far longer than an hour ago."

"What?" replied, Finn, Alex, Marak, Nir, and Kayto simultaneously.

Aggie then held up Alex's backpack and dumped the contents on Marak's desk. Included was Alex's laptop, cell phone, and goggles that Finn had all modified. "I think if you were to examine these, you would find traces of magic on them. According to Finn he's modified then. When you had me search Alex's room-"

"You searched my room?" interrupted Alex.

"Yes, love. It was back when we all thought you were a murderer, which I did have trouble with, and am quite glad wasn't the case. Now, as I was saying, while searching her room, I made an interesting discovery. This," said Aggie, as she picked up Alex's cell phone,"was ringing. On the other line was Finn who happened to know all about goblin and elves. They had apparently been communicating for quite a while."

Marak frowned at this news, while Kayto said slowly,"That's why you had me charging your phone and laptop when I was on duty."

Alex looked at the ground, ashamed that she had used Kayto in such a way. She wasn't as completely innocent as Kayto thought she was. Even if it wasn't murder, she had deceived him. Alex supposed the decent thing would be to apologize. Which she would. Eventually, she promised herself. When there were less witnesses around to see her admitting she was wrong.

A look of comprehension was forming on Nir's face. "We placed spells on the land to interfere with human things, and the spells always work,"

"But then an elf-cross came along and modified the human things," continued Marak on Nir's line of thought.

"And suddenly they worked, when they shouldn't," finished Alex. "I always wondered why my stuff worked when it shouldn't. I just thought it was because of Finn doing his thing."

"But it was precisely because of Finn doing his 'thing'. His magic that is," clarified Marak.

It was then a knock was heard on the door and Babar entered. It took him a couple seconds taking in the hodge-podge collection of beings in the room before he finally remembered what he had come there for, "Sir, the humans have been warned away from the lake as you asked, and when we went to go check on Eresha in the prisoner quarters, well..." he took a deep breath before continuing, "At first we couldn't find her, but after exploring the prison, we finally found her at the back, where the water is. Her head was in the water, and wasn't breathing...it appears she'd drown herself."

When Babar finished, everybody was silent. None felt remorse for her death.

"It's just as well," said Nir finally breaking the awkward silence, "Between my punishment for breaking the deal she made with my parents and I, goblin revenge, and the fate she was trying to bring down on the goblins, death was the easiest way out."

The others agreed with silence.

****Author's Note****

First off, thanks goes to JayLah, Phantomrox87, and AwkwardedOut for reviews. Reviews for this chapter will make my two engineering tests today more bearable.

And that's the twist I've been keeping this whole entire time. Go me. Basically once I decided to not kill off Inanna, I needed a love interest for Alex. It was a Thursday and I had just watched Big Bang Theory and liked the idea of a guy who could outsmart the goblins/figure out that pattern with the disappearances. Then I realized how a lot of stories always had the female lead turn out to be an elf, and wondered what it would be like to switch it to a male? Anyway, if you look at Finn's origin below, you see why I couldn't do the characters from After and Ever together.

**Finn; Eugene Lawrence Finnegan**: I gave some background already on Finn. I would also like to point out that I have sprinkled clues to Finn's identity throughout Ever and After. And his initials even spell **E.L.F**. His name was originally going to be Alf, which stands for elf counselor if I remember right, but it reminded me of the alien from the TV show. Then I kept calling him Flynn because I had just watched Tangled, so it became Finn, and his first name became Eugene for the character, and the rest followed to spell ELF with his initals.

**Alex**: I've had the idea of a young girl offering herself to the goblin king for a while. She's heard the stories, demands to see him, and in exchange he'll cure a relative or something similar. Except he's already married, but offers her the deal if she marries a goblin. Stuff happens, but the wife is killed and the girl is suspected. Turns out it was an elf who figured out what Eresha did, girl clears name, and all live happily ever after.

Not much, but over time it changed like Alice's story did. I wanted a character that was strong, and didn't like being the damsel in distress, and so Alex was created. Alex, short for Alexandra, means defender of mankind, which is what she is. She's a defender of her sister and the goblins, even when it means putting herself in harm's way. She's a smart alec, and says things I also wanted to but never would, and is also an engineer like myself. She's a perfect contrast to Alice who's meek and mild, needing to learn how to stand up for herself.

I'd also wanted to highlight the difference in relationships between Alice and Alex, vs. Inanna and Eresha. Eresha and Alex have a lot in common. Both try to protect their sisters. The difference being, Alex realizes that she can't protect Alice forever and lets her go, while Eresha simply squeezes all the more onto Inanna. I once described Eresha as being the type who didn't share well, she'd rather break her toys then let anybody else play with them.

**Kayto**: After coming up with Finn, I knew I needed a goblin interest as well for Alex. I was tired of coming up with animal goblins such as Lefou, Marak, Babar, etc... and I remembered that strong elf crosses sometimes appear blue. I figured he was probably a descendant of Irina and Thadyar, as well as Seylin and Emily, hence the strong blood. By making him Kayta's twin, it'd allowed me to slip into Ever, very discreetly.

At first I wasn't that fond of Kayto/Alex, but as I started to write, Kayto grew on me a lot, and apparently readers as well. I never expected such a strong reaction to him not believing Alex. But after rereading, it made more sense for his character that Alex deserved an apology and as such got one.

**Lefou**: I feel bad for Lefou. His only purpose for creation was to be killed by Eresha, which is a very such purpose. In fact, he was named after Gaston's sidekick in Beauty and the Beast, who I always felt bad for since Gaston stuck him outside Belle's house in the cold snow, waiting for her return.

**Paris**: He wasn't featured that much. I just liked the idea of a goblin king's wife remarrying. And since the short story with Colette featured the greek myth of Beauty vs. Power with her acting as Wisdom, the judge, I figured she needed a Paris.

I think that's most of the characters. Let me know if there's any you want to know more about. I would also like to add I do feel guilty about Eresha, making her all controling, and spiteful. I figured having her drown herself would be the merciful thing than goblin/elf revenge. Remember she did break her vow to Nir. In her mind, she had acted the perfect revenge on the goblins, and rather die than be at the hands of humans. So in a way, she died happy, thinking her plan succeeded.

There's two chapters left. Next is Two Worlds, which wraps some stuff up. The final final chapter will be set over 30 years into the future, as a final epilogue.


	19. Two Worlds

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

Thanks to the three people who voted for Happily! Also start submitting your September entries.

**Two Worlds**

Once the meeting was over, Alex got up to leave with Finn and the others. Before she could leave, Marak called her back.

"Alex," he began, "After everything that has happened over the last few days, I can only in good conscience release you from our deal."

Alex blinked at him. She had been so grateful not to be killed for what happened to Inanna and Lefou, or the lake crushing down on her, not going home with Finn hadn't even occurred to her. "Um...Thanks."

"That's it? I'm releasing you from your deal and all you can say is thanks?"

"I haven't had a good night's sleep in who know's how long, can't remember the last time I ate, haven't had a chance to bath or change clothes since the night that everything happened, feared for my life more times than I can count in the last couple days, so excuse me for not bowing down before you on bended knee giving thanks!" With the rant out of her system, Alex fled the room before the goblin king could change his mind about her release.

"There was no need to yell." But Alex was gone.

* * *

The conversation that followed, Alex knew nothing about. Sticking around to see what Marak had wanted to talk to Alex, was Nir. Once Alex left the room, Nir let out a snort.

"Is something the matter with your nasal cavities dear elf?" responded Marak.

"'Alex, I can only in good conscience release you'," his fellow king mocked. "More like in good conscience for your descendants."

Feigning innocence, the goblin king responded, "Your words wound me old friend."

"Really? I'm surprised you didn't demand a daughter from her and Finn in exchange for her freedom. Remember the last time a goblin king tried to arrange a bride for his son?"

"First, Marak Sixfinger's plan would have worked if it wasn't for your ancestor coming along and mucking everything up. Second, I considered it, but knowing Alex, she'd probably have a fit. But, if her and Finn were to get married some day, and if they were to visit each summer for Finn to learn magic and teach their powerful elf-cross children, and if those elf-cross children just so happened to fall in love with a goblin during the stay, what's to stop them from staying permanently in my kingdom?"

"Hold on now. She's my sister-in-law, and it's my duty to ensure my nieces' safety, so they'll be staying with me of course."

"What about their brothers?"

Nir frowned. He hadn't considered nephews.

"See, all the better for them to stay in my kingdom. That way I don't have to worry about them absconding with one of my female subjects, which given a human male's nature around pretty creatures, is bound to happen."

"I still say it'd never work," said the elf and walked off before the goblin could give a retort.

The goblin king just laughed. The elf king always had to have the last word, especially when he knew he was wrong.

* * *

The next couple days were full of goodbyes for Alex. The goblins were sorry for the way they treated Alex, along with seeing her go. They would stop her in the hallways to let her know she would be missed. The shyer ones would leave things at her door: ribbons, jewels, books, candy, small tokens.

Grindstone's goodbye reminded her of the end Snow White, when the dwarves said goodbye while she left in the sunset on the horse with her prince. Just because Alex wasn't that fond of fairy tales, didn't mean she had never seen the movies. Alice had almost every single Disney film on VHS in the basement still. Sometimes, when Alex was sick or having a rough time, she would sneak them up to her room and watch.

Alex had gathered with the dwarves for one last time in their caves. She kept insisting that it really wasn't a last time, she would be back in the summer. That didn't stop the dwarves from worrying though, afraid that once Alex left the kingdom, she'd be gone for good. As their way of saying goodbye, each dwarf presented Alex with their favorite rock or gem.

Aggregate gave her his favorite piece of coal; Bitum gave her a ruby; Riprap gave her a piece of slate; Lathe gave her a fossilized piece of wood he had found once; Pyrit gave her a piece of fool's gold; Loam gave her a rock that had moss on it; and Grindstone gave her a small, smooth stone that was bespelled to glow in the dark. All presents were characteristic of the dwarves that gave them and Alex appreciated them all. Dwarves are not known for getting emotional like those 'weepy elves' so they said little, letting their gifts speak their affection instead.

* * *

The hardest goodbye, was the one to Alice. The night before Alex was suppose to leave, they met one last time in the truce circle. While there, Nir was finishing Finn's crash course in elf magic. Over the past two days, Marak and Nir had tried the basics with Finn, who was studying every minute. He already had his backpack full of books on loan from Marak's vast library, and was picking up on Elvish and Goblin much faster than Alex ever did.

"You're coming back, right?" asked Alice, hesitantly. She knew she should be happy that her sister no longer had to marry a goblin, but she was also sad that she was going to be so far away again.

"Next summer for sure. Don't think I'd be able to keep Finn away for that long."

Alice gave a light laugh, but her heart wasn't in it. "I don't want you to go away again," she said quietly.

"Again?" questioned Alex.

Alice played with her hands nervously in her lap. "You left me when you went to school. I was all alone, and that's how I ended up with a couple days ago, you almost..." her voice trailed off, unable to finish the thought.

Sighing, Alex wrapped her arms around her sister, pulling her closer for an embrace. "Leaving you was the hardest thing I ever had to do. But if I hadn't I was afraid that you would turn out like Inanna."

"What?" asked a confused Alice.

Alex explained, "I was afraid if I didn't let you go, you'd resent me for it, like how Inanna ended up resenting Eresha for not letting her have her own life."

Alice leaned her head on Alex's shoulder, something she hadn't done in years. "I could never resent you. You're my sister and always will be."

Fishing around in her pocket with one hand was hard, but Alex finally found what she was looking for. "Take this," she said, and handed the item to Alice. "I can just get a new one when I go back home. Just lay it out in the sun when the battery gets low, and it'll be fine. That way we can talk as often as we want."

"I'd like that," Alice admitted, and then laughed.

"What's so funny?"

"For some reason I have a feeling Finn will be using the phone more often than us to talk to Nir and Marak."

Alex joined in with her sister's laughter. "I have a feeling that you might be right."

* * *

The most surprising goodbye, belonged to Candace.

Alex had finished packing and had gone to knock on Candace's door. After spending two days with her, Alex could finally stand being around her without the urge to hurt her.

"Where are your bags?" demanded Alex once Candace opened the door. "We're leaving in an hour, you need to get a move on."

"I'm not going," replied Candace, to which Alex's jaw dropped in shock.

"What do you mean, 'not going'?"

"Ever since the whole...incident happened...I've been jumpy and nervous. Always looking over my shoulder, never going out, sleeping with a frying pan under my pillow," Alex raised an eyebrow at that particular revelation but let Candace continue without interruption. "And for the first time in a long time I was finally able to sleep peacefully without drugs. It's like, a weight is gone, and I can finally just_ breathe_."

"And the warm welcome had absolutely nothing to do with it?" The warm welcome that Alex was referring to was the number of jewelry Candace was decked out in. Necklaces, rings, bracelets...Candace was wearing enough bling to put a rapper to shame, and actually managed to pull it off. Not that Alex would ever admit it.

"Well, the welcome was rather nice. Goblins might not be the prettiest things to look at, but they sure know how to make you feel welcome. Anyway, Marak offered me the same deal he offered you. Marry a goblin of my choice within a year, or he'll pick for me."

"What about your parents?"

"Simple. Tell them I met a guy and eloped. They'd believe it."

"Gee, that one sounds familiar," responded Alex in a sarcastic tone.

Candace replied demurely, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Alex just rolled her eyes. Typical Candace.

* * *

The most awkward goodbye, was to Kayto.

Alex had just finished up talking to Candace and was walking back to her room when she ran into Kayto.

"So, you're leaving then?" he asked her bluntly.

"Yeah..." Then remembering the promise to herself from earlier, "I'm sorry about tricking you about charging my cell phone. It was wrong of me."

Instead of being angry, Kayto merely laughed. "It seems like I'm the one who's usually apologizing to you. Some couple we would have been, never quite trusting each other."

Alex gave a small smile. "Yeah, we probably wouldn't have gone a week without fighting."

"I think a week would be optimistic at best."

Both chuckled quietly for a couple minutes before Alex finally spoke. "Friends then?" she asked sticking out her hand.

"Friends," agreed Kayto shaking it with his.

Alex then continued on her way back to her room. Suddenly she stopped and said, "Hey Kayto. Candace is staying. She might be conceited and selfish sometimes, but she is a decent person. I think... anyway, I think you two might get... along rather well."

Kayto nodded and responded, "I heard. From what I've seen she's got a strong will, and handled herself during the Eresha affair rather well for a human. I might go and see how she's adjusting to the kingdom. Marak did make it my duty to see that our new guests settle in well after all."

Alex snorted. "Of course."

* * *

**Seven months later...**

Inanna screamed. She had been in labor for nearly eighteen hours and it was finally time to push. Her mother-in-law was holding her hand, while her husband coached her through her labor. His lieutenant was also in the room, if his king should need his assistance. Even the elf king had been told to be on standby. Ever since Marak nearly lost his beloved wife and heir months before, he had been extra cautious throughout the rest of Inanna's pregnancy, putting her on bedrest for the remainder as she recovered from the attack and blood lost. The elf king had laughed at the goblin king's request for him to be ready, but the line of, 'we'll see how paranoid you are in three months when your heir is expected', was more than enough to silence the elf.

During those seven months, not once did Inanna cry for her sister. In her mind, her sister had died years ago. Inanna mourned for the sister that played with her, brushed her hair, took care of her. Not for the bitter, controlling sister that Eresha had turned into.

Finally, a wailing sound filled the room. The new Marak was quickly cleaned and wrapped in a blanket by his grandmother, before finally being placed in his weary mother's arms.

Aggie smiled at the sight of her new grandson. She then pulled a gawking Kayto out the door who promptly went to spread the news of the new Marak's birth among the goblins. There would be plenty of time to ogle the new addition later, but for now, it was his parents' turn to spend time with him.

As Inanna began to inspect her new son, she started to cry.

"What's the matter?" asked her husband, who had sat down next to her.

"He's green," exclaimed Inanna. For the most part, the newborn looked like an elf. He could have even passed for an elf, if it wasn't for a few features. He had pointed ears like an elf, but they weren't located low on his head. Instead they were on top, covered in red fur, and resembled a fox's ears. He also had a little red fox tail to match his ears. While Inanna knew there was a strong chance that her son would have animal features, she hadn't been prepared for his skin color. A deep emerald green color like his father's could be seen, minus the scales.

Marak chuckled at his wife's reaction. "I thought you liked that I was green."

"It makes sense on you, you have scales."

"I like the green," responded her husband. "Oh, look, he has your hair." Sure enough, amid the red fur on the infant's head, were thick, black tendrels that resembled his mother.

Sensing that he was being talked about, the infant opened his eyes. This caused his father to further exclaim, "And your eyes! I was hoping he would have your eyes!" Marak then held out a finger.

Inanna watched as her son gripped his father's finger. She had stopped sobbing at this point, and was slowly coming to terms with her son's skin color. She was delighted that he had her hair and eyes. All in all, she supposed he could look worse. From what she had read, some kings had claws, feathers, grotesque deformations of limbs, and even bi-colored eyes. The green was even starting to grow on her a bit, reminding her of the grass and trees she loved.

After a bit, she finally asked, "What should we name him?"

"Marak Foxears."

* * *

Kayto burst into the room that Candace, Finn, and Alex had been sitting in. Alex and Finn had arrived the day before, taking a week off before their internships started. On the plane ride back to the states, Alex had been paranoid that Finn would freak out on the plane, get them both kicked off, and then get a million hits on Youtube. She was pleasantly surprised that the soothing potion Marak had concocted worked like a charm, literally. Finn had been so calm that Alex almost wondered if he had been switched with a goblin. Almost.

In the seven months that had passed, Alex and Finn had finished their junior year. They were also taking their relationship slow, not wanting to screw things up by going too fast. A couple dates, some hand holding, a kiss here and there was as far as they had gotten. For some that might not be enough, but for Alex and Finn, it was perfect.

With him was Finn's project from all those months ago. It was a tree, just not the kind that Alex had been thinking. It was a family tree instead. As it turned out, doing all the research on Hallow Hill had jogged Finn's memory about his family history. After several months he found that he had ancestors on his father's side that had immigrated to America from the Hallow Hill area in the 1800's. These were probably the same ancestors that had given Finn his Elvish blood. During his research, he had even found a battered and worn journal with traces of Elvish in it. Finn had brought it with him for Marak and Nir to take a look at, once the goblin heir had been born.

The same heir that Kayto had rushed to the room in a fervor to describe. "I didn't see much, but I saw ears and green!"

"Ears and green? Sounds rather interesting," responded Candace to the news.

"Yeah, wonder how interesting your kids will turn out to be," joked Alex.

Candace just stuck her tongue out at her.

****Author's Note****

Huge thanks to all my reviewers: AwkwardedOut, SiriusBlackisSeriuslyFunny333, JayLah, speederina, and CeCe. All the reviews made my tests worth it.

Next chapter is the FINAL chapter and takes place roughly 30 years after this chapter ends, and is appropriately called, The Circle of Life. Also expect to see at the end deleted scenes, and alternative endings. If you want to see anything else, or have questions you want answer, leave them in a review or PM me, and I will try.

CeCe: The internet book club sounds like a great idea to keep in contact with each other. I feel so honored that you're reading After as a part of it. Besides reading, what else do you do?

A lot of the things in the comments are things that I've been saving for a while, but have been unable to divulge because it would spoil things. I've always been one to love bonus features and extras, so I thought I would do the same. I'm glad that there are some people who love them as much as I do.

So you went back and reread, huh? It certainly puts things in a new perspective once you know the truth about Finn, and I'm glad to hear that all the clues worked perfectly. As my friends can tell you, I love my twists, especially those that take what you think you know, and flip it upside down. It's better still when I've been hinting at it, so it makes sense, but yet nobody picks up on them.

Anyway, thanks for reviewing, since your reviews are Super Awesome to read!

Something I forgot to mention last chapter was Finn's magic. It seems a lot of you appreciated the twist that a guy was the elf-cross for a change, instead of a girl. His magic allows him to alter spells already, or modify them. That's how he was able to get Alex's phone to work, he modified it to boost reception, but also unintentionally managed modify it enough so the spells on the Hallow Hill grounds didn't interfere with reception. His ancestors were probably the ones who discovered new spells at the elf camps, or modified current ones. As Irina demonstrated in Close Kin, it is possible for elves to do things with magic that other elves had never considered before when she started dying her cloth many colors, far beyond the classic elf green and and brown.

As mentioned, there were some readers that went back and reread to find all the clues that hinted Finn was an elf. I knew that he was one before writing After, so I managed to include as many as I could without blatantly stating the fact he was one. There was even one that I put in Ever. When Alice goes to the shop in the town she buys an elf statue for a friend of Alex's. That friend was Finn, and although she bought it since he was into fantasy, a part of her also recognized that he looked very similar to the statue.

As always, read, enjoy and review!


	20. Circle of Life

I do not own the rights to the Hollow Kingdom or song.

Seeing as how this is After's last chapter, I want to thank all my wonderful reviewers for leaving a review: Calijame, speederina, CeCe, JayLah, SiriusBlackisSeriuslyFunny333, AwkwardedOut, Phantomrox87, Chris, blabla, very sad girl, DDD, Connysilvia, BalletGirl98, and noonface.

Your reviews mean a lot, and I'm sad that they are coming to an end.

I would also like to thank all my readers, whether you are anonymous or not. I've had many readers from the United States, but also quite a number from Denmark, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, and Singapore.

Finally, I would like to thank everybody who's put this story on alert or favorited it. It's nice to know that people enjoy it that much.

And now, on to the final chapter of After.

**Circle of Life**

For the first time in over thirty years, the goblins were gathered for a king's Wife ceremony. This particular ceremony however, was much different than all the ones previously for two reasons.

The first being, that the bride was not yelling, struggling, or screaming during the ceremony. The tears that she shed were tears of joy, not sadness. The second being that unlike the brides before her, she had family in attendance. None of whom had come to recapture her, but were instead celebrating the occasion. In fact, the dwarves had to create more seating for the bride's family, as well as for the dwarves themselves, who were close to the family. The goblin kings of old would no doubt find the sight very surreal and unorthodox, but to the goblins in the audience it was to be expected.

Seated at the far left end in the front row facing the ceremony was a definite first: an elf king who was the cousin of the bride. Seated on his right was his own new bride, a local girl named Aggie. She was curled up in her husband's protective arms, grateful that her own ceremony was much less bloody than the current. She was also currently sneaking glances at the old woman next to her, the one that her aunt and herself had been named after. She had felt a sense of excitement upon learning that her grandmother's stories about the goblins were true.

The old lady seated next to her, was indeed, old. In fact, she had outlived three husbands and the goblins frequently joked that she would outlive them all. All the goblins called her Nana, considering her their grandmother. In truth, she only had one biological grandson, but had many adoptive grandchildren. One of which was marrying her actual grandson. As children under the full moon, they would all fight for her attention, saying that they were loved best. Then she would have to assure them that she loved them all equally. Of course, once the others weren't looking, she would wink at each one individually, filling them with the knowledge that they were secretly right.

On her right side, sat her son. Marak Chameleonskin, had lost his beloved wife, Inanna, a couple years previously and had been devastated by the loss. He had known that she would always die before he did, but after nearly losing her once many years ago, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind, hoping that he had been wrong. In the end, it had taken his mother, fellow king Nir, best friend and lieutenant Kayto, and son, Marak Foxears to get him out of his funk. After a week in mourning, Marak emerged from his room to find his son had taken over his duties while he grieved. Seeing his son doing so successfully, had led him to handing over most of his magic to his son. Though it broke tradition, not waiting for the past Marak die, Marak didn't care. It was time for a new king. And besides, if a former king's Wife could remarry twice, then he could what was the human phrase 'retire'.

Seated on his right, was the former elf king, Aganir Suen, now called Suen. After Marak had retired, he had decided to retire as well, and handed over his magic to his heir. Unlike the goblins however, one or both parents of the elf heir were not required to be dead for the next heir to marry.

Chameleonskin as he was called now, or Cham for short, leaned over and whispered, "Told you so," referring to an argument between the two from many years ago.

"You got lucky," whispered Suen back.

His response was a wide grin.

Suen's wife, Alice, who was the aunt of the bride as well as godmother, patted her husband to calm him down. As an elf he was already agitated at being underground, and the former goblin king knew all the ways to get under his flawless skin. It was Alice, however, who knew how to calm him down after all the years of being together. She smiled at her older sister, Alex, who sat next to her.

Alex, the mother of the bride watched on as her youngest child was getting married. Alex had graduated from college and went on to become a licensed civil engineer who had participated in a number of successful projects. That didn't stop her from returning to the goblin kingdom once a year to help the dwarves on their projects and visit her sister. As Marak hoped, she did marry Finn, ten years after she discovered the truth of her sister's disappearance.

At first they had been awkward with each other, not quite sure how to proceed once they realized their true feelings. But they finished school still attached at the hip, and began dating, and finally got married. Their marriage produced five children, just as strong in elf blood as their father. Three girls, two boys to be precise.

Alex and Finn eventually discovered the real reason Marak had let Alex go. After some time they came to terms with the fact that it was highly probable that their daughters would marry goblins. In the end, they only demanded that their daughters get a college degree before settling down.

The oldest, Clare, took after her mother and pursued a degree in civil engineering. She now helped the dwarves like her mother did, and had married a son of Candace and Kayto. She was seated in the back with her goblin husband and children behind her parents. The second daughter, Rima, took after her father and helped him with his projects. She had married a son of Babar and Kayta and was also seated in the back. The youngest, Alice, had just finished veterinarian school and was the bride.

Finn meanwhile was seated next to his wife and was recording the ceremony, another first for the king's wives. He understood not many people would be able to watch, but he had taped his other children's weddings and wasn't about to miss his youngest. His wife just smiled and laid her head on his shoulder.

Over the last couple decades, Finn had worked on a number of projects with Marak and Nir. He pointed out that sooner or later, humans would improve their technology enough to the point where it should work, even in the middle of the woods. With that in mind, all three designed a system of spells that didn't interfere with the technology, but controlled what the humans saw or heard. Ground penetrating radar, heat vision, etc... would all produce normal images, instead of the true ones or not working at all.

On the other side of Finn, was Christopher, or Chris, their oldest child who was a mechanical engineer. He was seated next to his wife, a daughter of Miranda's, that he played with as a child at the Inn. She was holding their two year-old daughter in her lap with their seven year-old son on her left. He was making faces at his cousin, the child of Nick, the second son of Alex and Finn who had gone on to become an artist. His wife was Til, daughter of Aggie, and cousin to the new elf king's Wife.

Neither wives knew of their husbands' family, and probably never would have found out if it hadn't been for their sons. One summer day they had seen their sons playing together in the living room. Next second they were gone, and in their place were two white rabbits. The wives had called their husbands in hysterics, only to hear laughter at the other end of the phone. It was then the brothers filled in their wives on what their children had done, and their elvish blood. They had been laughing because the brothers had done the exact same thing to each other as boys, much to their parent's dismay.

Behind the huge brood, were Candace and Kayto. Candace was initially attracted to Kayto since he was the most handsome guy she'd ever seen, minus the blue skin bit. Plus, he was more honest with her, than even Nick had been. And he admired her for outwitting two kings, something Candace had never experienced before.

Meanwhile, the honor of having a non-goblin bride, especially one that had managed to avoid the pursuit of two kings, attracted him to her initially. He soon found that her personality was a bit different from Alex. He had been attracted to Alex and would have married her, but he was glad he married Candace. She was more regal, and enjoyed the finer things in life, unlike Alex who loved wearing sweats all day. Seated with them were their numerous children and grandchildren.

As the golden snake charm was brought down upon the new bride, the goblin crowd rose and cheered. Marak Foxears gave them further cause to cheer when he bent down and kissed his new bride.

The goblins had seen many interesting things over the years, but the sight of a king's Wife willingly, and gladly, kissing her husband back on her wedding night, was definitely a first. Hopefully the first of many to come.

****Author's Note****

And so After comes to an end. I've already said my thanks to reviewers, readers, and more, so now it's time for extras. There are deleted scenes, alternative endings, and at the very end what I'm currently working on. Read what you want and enjoy.

I would first like to say yes, I know that Marak and Nir should probably be dead before their heirs take over, but I really wanted to see them together one last time, just so Marak could say, 'I told you so'. Please forgive me, just this once.

**Deleted Scenes:**

I never actually got to write this scene, but it deserves to be mentioned. It takes place when Alex is brought to the goblin kingdom and locked in the prison. Once locked in, Alex would look around for some kind of weapon to protect herself, just incase she was lied to. Not finding anything, not even a rock, she eventually takes off one of her shoes and waits close to the door. Marak then opens it, only to find an angry looking human girl holding a shoe as a weapon.

The reason why the scene wasn't included, was because I realized that the human and elf quarters from In the Coils of the Snake were still there, and probably still had furniture in them that Alex could use instead of a shoe. The scene was funny, but it's main purpose was to have a line like the following: Alex bent down to take off her shoe, paying close attention to what shoe she chose. Basically foreshadowing that Alex had something to hide in her other shoe, aka Kayto's watch. But once I realized that the quarters were there with heavier objects, the shoe thing seemed pointless, and there went the point of having a weapon.

There was also a couple paragraphs that got cut from "Dig a Little Deeper" in Ever. They explained how Eresha found her way to the goblin kingdom. I was rereading it at one point, when I realized that up to that point I had never wrote a chapter that contained Eresha's perspective before. I decided to cut the scenes and continue not writing from her perspective, saving everything for her own chapter. It ended up being called "When She Loved Me" but was originally going to be "Eresha Knows Best". Except as I got more into After, I realized that there was more to Eresha than simply being bitter and controlling of Inanna. And so I came up with her history, and her chapter took on more of a sadder tone.

**Alternative Endings:**

I did mention at one point, that After was going to have Inanna die, Alex being framed, clearing her name, and then marrying Marak. But then Inanna got a reprieve and Kayto and Finn came along. The following are the different endings I had in mind, in order.

1. Inanna dies, Alex is framed, marries Marak. At the end, Alex designs a memorial known as, Inanna's tree. It's a tree that's planted under the lake. Working with Marak and the dwarves, she creates a spell that turns the water droplets in the lake into solar storage units. During the day they would collect solar energy, and transfer it down into the goblin kingdom, providing enough sunlight for the tree to live.

Well that plan got scratched once I decided Inanna lives. I briefly toyed with the idea of it becoming Eresha's tree, but then realized that the goblins probably wouldn't create a memorial for her.

2. Inanna lives, Alex is framed, and Finn saves her with his technology that records Eresha admitting her guilt. They then live with the elves.

I realized that expecting Finn and Alex to live with the elves for the rest of their lives was a stupid idea. Finn may be an elf, but he prefers being inside. I also couldn't see Finn and Alex never contacting their families again, or not continuing their education.

3. Inanna lives, Alex is framed, and Kayto saves Alex.

Kayto was originally intended as a goblin love interest for Alex to trick readers into Alex would end up with a goblin and not Finn. But his character grew one me enough for me to consider them as a couple. Then I saw a lonely Finn, and Kayto and Alex bickering as a couple, and realized that it wouldn't work.

4. Inanna lives, Alex is framed, the Lake is endangered, and Finn goes to the goblin kingdom.

This is the final version. I added a lake, because if Eresha's main plan was to kill Inanna, she would keep trying, and I would be going through goblins that acted as a distraction to Charm. So although Eresha tries to kill Inanna and fails, she figures the Lake spell failing, revealing the goblins would be more than enough for Inanna.

Below is stuff I'm currently working on for those that are interested. If there is anything that you're interested in reading, let me know in a review or PM me. It'll let me know what people are interested in reading, and what I should be working on when I can't decide. Which happens a lot.

**What's Next:**

Despite school, the FE, and other things, I can't help but write. Even if it's only for a couple minutes a day, writing and plotting stories is how I relax. I tried to go a couple days without writing, but plot bunnies kept visiting me. So below are listed some of the stuff I'm working on. Out of all my ideas, they are the ones that are most likely to be posted. Eventually.

**Clare B. Dunkle Section:**

_A Girl's Guide to Dealing With Goblins, Elves, and Other Magical Beings: _

I only have a couple chapters written so far, but it has potential. Basically it's what it says, a guide to the Hollow Kingdom world. Chapters include but are not limited to: Is there really a magical being after me, or is it just my imagination?, Help! I don't want to marry a magical creature against my will, and Help! I want to marry a magical creature against their will.

There's more, but that'll be giving too much away. I also plan on letting readers submit their own ideas for future chapters.

_Happily_:

Although it is finished, I do have other chapter in mind. They're basically one-shots that couldn't fit into Ever or After. One is how Edi met her Nir, Aggie shortly after she married Marak, and a scene with Aggie and Edi at the Truce Circle with their young sons.

There's really no rush on this one, and my inspiration is currently otherwise occupied at the moment, but I do have ideas.

Co-author story:

I'm currently working on a story with another author concerning Kate's elvish ancestor, who also happens to be Finn's as well. We're not far along, and both have school, so it'll be a while before it'll be posted, but it is started.

Challenges:

I do plan on participating in the writing challenges if I have a good idea. For September, I have a meh idea. It could be good, or might not be. I also have an idea for the October challenge, so I'll see how that goes.

**Justice League:**

_The Trouble With Sues_:

Honestly, I don't know how many people in this section would be interested in this story, but I thought I would still mention it. The idea for it hit me out of the blue this week, and now I can't stop writing it in my free time. At the moment I have 3 chapters finished. It takes place in the Justice League universe, and is a different approach to dealing with a Mary Sue.

**Other**:

My own story:

I mentioned a couple chapter's ago in an author's note that I was working on my own story. So far I only have roughly 11,000 words, but it's off to a good start. Although it will never get posted here, if I finish I want to try to get it published. Which if that somehow happens, I will update my profile with the news for those who are curious and want to read it.

And that's it for After and Ever. Fin. Don't forgot to leave once last review!


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